According to Christian Nerlinger, Thomas Müller is ideally suited for the role of an official

Christian Nerlinger, a former professional and later sports director at Bayern Munich, thinks Thomas Müller is ideally suited for a top job with the German record champions. Müller is an ideal candidate in perspective, he has “intellect, heart, wit and football skills,” said the 50-year-old of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit.

He also advocated including “players and personalities like Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Gomez” in the leadership. Like Müller, Neuer is still active, Lahm is the OC for the home EM 2024, Schweinsteiger works as a TV expert (ARD) and Gomez as technical director at Red Bull Soccer International.

Nerlinger currently misses humanity in Bayern’s transfer policy. “Uli Hoeneß always said: football management (…) is not a soulless computer game geared purely to commercial interests. At the moment FC Bayern has deviated a little from this philosophy.” The club and the public initially spoke about attacker Sadio Mane, “as if he could walk on water. After a year he was sent away. That’s blatant”.

That’s why Nerlinger sees the efforts to striker Harry Kane critically: “I’m not a fan of lighthouse transfers. It’s not enough to just buy very good players. Even a Harry Kane won’t win you the Champions League.” The 29-year-old is a world-class striker”. However, Nerlinger is “not a fan of believing that a 100 million transfer will solve all problems”.