Bayern Munich still looking for first Chinese player, says Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
- ‘We are ready to sign players from China and are very much looking forward to it,’ says Bundesliga champions’ chairman
- Comments reiterate hopes expressed by former president Uli Hoeness of ‘300 million Chinese paying one euro each’
Bayern Munich want Chinese footballers, the German giants’ Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has told China’s Xinhua news agency.
“We are ready to sign players from China and are very much looking forward to it,” the 64-year-old told them despite past searches for talent coming up short.
The Bavarians, who extended their Bundesliga run to eight in a row and a record 30 this season, have long courted the Chinese market and a player would help their quest for success.
That courtship has all come under Rummenigge’s chairmanship, with the two-time Ballon d’Or winner taking over the role in 2002. He had earlier announced that he will depart when his contract expires at the end of next year.
Bayern’s China strategy has included visits from the first team and the official opening of a Shanghai office in 2017.
Last year there was confusion after the Bavarians were announced to be playing the Chinese national team in a friendly in Beijing in May. The Allianz China Cup never happened and no new date was announced.
That would have been a fourth visit to China for the club following earlier matches in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the capital. This year will see them only visit the country virtually as part of the Audi Digital Summer Tour.
Bayern have also set up football academies to nurture local playing and coaching talent.
The first FC Bayern Football School in the country opened in Qingdao in October 2016, followed by facilities in Shenzhen and Taiyuan in Shanxi province in 2018. Bayern have sent coaches from Munich to train the local coaches.
Notably, a team representing China finished third at last year’s Bayern Junior Cup, competing against teams from around the world.
However, no Chinese player has ever signed for Bayern, although the club would clearly welcome it.
Rummenigge’s comments reiterated the claims of Uli Hoeness, the then club president in 2017.
“The Chinese are new on the market because their president has decided football should be the country’s main sport. Football will also be the most important sport in schools.
“We have built four football academies in China and my philosophy is that there will be a Chinese player at Bayern at some stage. And there will be a lot of interest when we have this Chinese player.”
Such interest would benefit Bayern financially, Hoeness suggested.
“If we then probably play at two o’clock on Saturday so that we can broadcast live in prime time in Shanghai or Beijing, then 300 million Chinese will press on their iPhone and pay one euro each,” Hoeness told German newspaper Blick in 2017.
Last year, Wu Lei was the only Chinese player in the top five European leagues, although he will play in the Spanish second tier with Espanyol after they were relegated.
