As of 2008 shortly before moving to Inter Milan

Former German national player Bastian Schweinsteiger, 2014 world champion, played on Sunday evening in the ARD sports show in the run-up to the Nations League final between Spain and France in the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium reveal that he was about to move to Inter Milan in the summer of 2008.

After Jürgen Klinsmann took over as coach at Bayern for the 2008/09 season, Aleksandr Hleb was to be brought to Säbener Strasse from Arsenal. For Schweinsteiger there would obviously have been no more space at FCB.

“Then it would have turned out that I would have ended up in Milan,” explained Schweinsteiger. Instead of going to Bayern, however, Hleb finally switched to FC Barcelona – and Schweinsteiger, who wanted to stay in Munich anyway, continued to play for the German record champions.

Schweinsteiger played a total of 500 competitive games for FC Bayern from 2002 to 2015 before moving to Manchester United. After a good one and a half years there and almost three years in the MLS at Chicago Fire, the now 37-year-old former midfielder ended his active career in January 2020.

As is well known, Klinsmann only lasted barely a year at Bayern. The former national coach was dismissed at the end of April 2009, and later he coached the national team of the USA and Hertha BSC.