“Made me a little sad”

The former CEO of FC Bayern Munich Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was touched by Lionel Messi’s departure from FC Barcelona.

“When I found out about it, it honestly made me a little sad. Barcelona and Messi – it was a successful marriage for 21 years that is now in divorce,” said Rummenigge SportPicture. “You could tell how unhappy he is about what happened. He was willing to give up a lot of money to accommodate FC Barcelona. But even that was not enough to renew the contract. That was for Messi certainly a big disappointment. “

From then on, Messi plays for Paris Saint-Germain, where he meets Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. Despite the prominent attackers, Rummenigge is certain: “PSG will not be unbeatable!”

Meanwhile, Messi’s move to FC Bayern was never an issue. “That doesn’t work for several reasons,” said Rummenigge, who handed over his position at Bayern to Oliver Kahn at the beginning of July. On the one hand, “that would have been an order of magnitude financially, which would have caused problems – especially in the dressing room: Nothing remains secret today, the players know almost exactly what the people next to them earn. The salary level with us would be the same as with Barcelona happened, got pulled up over Messi. “

According to Rummenigge, the second problem: “I can hardly imagine a Messi in a country like Germany.” He believes that the reason for this assumption is a pronounced culture of envy in this country.

Rummenigge on financial fair play

Rummenigge is watching developments on the transfer market with concern. “We must all, especially German football, have a great interest in finding regulations. Otherwise German football will be left behind on the international scene,” he said and spoke out in favor of “international regulation”.

According to Rummenigge, this already exists with financial fair play, “just needs to be adapted and used and demanded more stringently,” said the 65-year-old. In the course of this, Rummenigge demanded a “specific catalog of penalties”.

Especially Paris St. Germain and the English heavyweights Manchester City, Chelsea FC and Manchester United are causing a stir in the current transfer phase. “At the moment you have the impression that the English are marching on on the transfer market as if Corona had never happened,” said Rummenigge. Reasons for this are “three times as high TV revenues as in the Bundesliga” and “very rich owners in the background”.

While City Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) for 118 million euros and city rival United Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund) for 85 million euros, Chelsea is facing the signing of star striker Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan) for 115 million euros.