Analyzing Bayern Munich’s future salary and transfer budget

The transfer of Mario Götze to Borussia Dortmund was huge financial move for Bayern Munich. They cleared out a player who had barely played the previous season and was collectively their biggest financial cost. Götze’s yearly financial hit on the books amounted to €22M — €12M in wages and a €10M per season hit for his transfer fee. His sale brings the club down to a healthier annual wage bill and gives them financial flexibility this season. But that’s all the Mario Götze sale does because Bayern Munich’s financial future after this season is wide open.

Transfer Fee Amortization

On the transfer front Bayern Munich have already committed a serious amount of cash to their squad for the three years of Carlo Ancelotti’s reign. Clocking in at nearly €45M in amortized transfer fee costs this season, that total rises above €50M next season assuming they do the very obvious move of exercising their purchase option on Kingsley Coman. That carries over to the final season of Ancelotti’s reign.

It’s probably safe to assume that the core at Bayern Munich right now constitutes the bulk of the 3-three year plan for this team. There will certainly be some additions and subtractions but the overall structure of this team is likely to show us exactly how Carlo Ancelotti intends to approach the next three seasons.

After that Bayern Munich have remarkably little committed on the books. That’s for two reasons: a) a majority of the current core were signed to 4 year contracts last season that place them in a prime spot to be sold or moved in anticipation of creating roster turnover with a transition to a new coach or movement in three years time, and b) their committed core is mostly composed of youth products who cost nothing on the amortized transfer front. This is the core of Jerome Boateng, Thomas Müller, David Alaba, and Javi Martinez. Of those, only Javi Martinez has a transfer fee attached to his head and his most recent extension drops that amount down to less than €1M per season.

Bayern Munich’s Salary Budget

Where Bayern Munich have the greatest range of financial freedom is on the wages front. This is the last season of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben’s contracts. The duo make in aggregate what Mario Götze cost to Bayern Munich every season if you want another example of how stellarly that contract worked out for Bayern. Those two in addition to Xabi Alonso, Rafinha and Holger Badstuber represent nearly €40M in salary that will come off the books next summer for Bayern.

This represents a tremendous amount of financial freedom when it comes to how Bayern respond to the growth of Renato Sanches, Joshua Kimmich, and Kingsley Coman. That trio collectively makes less than Rafinha and you can be absolutely certain they’re not going to be okay with that should they move into more critical roles with this team. Bayern know this and they’re planning for accordingly.

Bayern Munich Salaries and Player Financials

***Minimum transfer price is the remaining sunk cost Bayern Munich has on the player. Sales above this amount represent the team making a profit on the transfer.

**Year FFP Cost is calculated as the transfer fee amortized over the length of the contract plus player gross wages. Extensions before the final year of the contract amortize the remaining transfer fee value over the length of the new contract, see Javi Martinez.

***Loans are treated uniquely. In the case of Benatia, yearly FFP for 2016/2017 s reduced by his loan fee to Juventus for the single year of the loan. Kingsley Coman's value and numbers reflect the event that Bayern Munich exercise the purchase option in his contract.

****Player wage estimated. Transfer fees and wages are collected from a variety of sources at the time the deals were completed and again at the time of player extensions. As such, not all are reliably available.