Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 11:33 AM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 11:45

Hasan Salihamidzic was not Bayern Munich’s first choice in the search for a new sporting director, journalist Ronald Reng writes in his column. Sports buzzer. According to Reng, Miroslav Klose was higher on chairman Uli Hoeness’ wish list. In 2017, Salihamidzic took over as sporting director at Bayern, after which he was promoted by the club to technical director in 2020.

Reng is known as a leading German sports journalist and writer. “When Hoeness told me at the time that they had asked Miroslav Klose as the new sports director, I knew how desperate they were,” said the journalist. “Klose judged for himself that the position did not suit him. He had a lot of football skills, but no management experience. Then Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge came up with the next newcomer to the business: Salihamidzic.”

In 2017, Bayern had to look for a successor for Matthias Sammer, who had stepped down a year earlier. According to rumors, the club would also have knocked on the door of former players Max Eberl and Philipp Lahm, but both would have refused. The pair would be concerned that they would not get the necessary freedoms under Hoeness and Rummenigge. The club then decided to switch to Salihamidzic, who wore the shirt of the reigning national champion between 1998 and 2007 and subsequently held various positions at the club.

Klose recently spoke with Bild is still full of praise for the way in which the organizational structure is set up at Bayern. The current assistant to Hansi Flick, who is very likely to leave next summer, admires the way Hoeness and Rummenigge run the club. “What makes me think is the way they communicate with each other,” said Klose. “They have respect for each other, even though they do not always agree. They have made this club a world club because they have always been concerned with Bayern and not with their ego.”

Bild came out in January with a story about Salihamidzic and his troubled relationship with Flick. The German boulevard newspaper reported that the ‘td’ is firmly in control of the transfer policy and that Flick has little to say about attracting players. The trainer had an insightful conversation about this with Salihamidzic in March. Last Saturday, after the game won against VfL Wolfsburg (2-3), Flick indicated that he wanted to leave as coach of Bayern after this season. The coach is often associated with the German national team, where he has to succeed Joachim Löw as national coach.