Bayern Munich eclipse €100m in transfer sales this summer

As many have undoubtedly heard — or tallied up themselves over the course of an exciting transfer window — Bayern Munich have eclipsed the €100m mark in transfer revenue this summer, setting a club record in the process. Sport Bild had the breakdown. Striker Joshua Zirzkee’s move to Excelsior Rotterdam this week was the deal that pushed it over the top. What an achievement this has been for sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić, CEO Oliver Kahn, and the rest of the front office!

Not even Uli Hoeneß (70) managed that as a manager!

The 8.5 [from the Zirkzee sale] million also completes a historic transfer window for FC Bayern. With the sales of Robert Lewandowski to FC Barcelona (45 million), Tanguy Nianzou to Sevilla FC (16 million), Chris Richards to Crystal Palace (12 million), Marc Roca to Leeds United (12 million), Omar Richards to Nottingham Forest (8.5 million. ), Lars Lukas Mai to FC Lugano (1.6 mo.) and Ron-Thorben Hoffmann to Eintracht Braunschweig (0.3 million), Bayern’s total transfer income with Zirkzee comes to 103.9 million euros this summer. The bonus payments agreed with the clubs are not even included.

Uli Hoeneß, of course, famously helped steady Bayern’s finances at a pivotal point in club history by selling key players — giving the club a solid footing it has not to this day relinquished, and allowing it to build itself into the competitive juggernaut we have known for many decades now.

This summer, the situation is not as it was in Uli’s day, but equally it was a crossroads. Bayern had been hit hard by the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and have had to endure tight purse-strings for several windows in a row now. The team had just been dumped ignominiously by Villarreal in the Champions League as well, and felt the pressure to jump-start a squad renewal for second-year coach Julian Nagelsmann. Many stars were (and are) entering the last years of their careers, and at least one of them — Robert Lewandowski — was making noise to leave.

And so came a spending spree that left the footballing world stunned — Liverpool’s Sadio Mané (€41m) and Juventus FC’s Matthijs de Ligt (€80m) headlining — but had been years in the making. Now, with the sales side of the ledger taking shape, we see that Bayern haven’t really strayed from their fiscally prudent ways — leaving the club once again well-positioned to take on the best competition Europe has to offer for years to come.