2024-04-24 23:40:35
Ralf Rangnick is considered the favorite for the coaching position at FC Bayern. But the 65-year-old has a spicy past with many Munich residents.
The search for a coach at FC Bayern continues. Xabi Alonso and Julian Nagelsmann have decided against the record champions, and Ralf Rangnick is now the favorite for the position. Ideally, Austria’s national coach should sign in Munich this week, other media outlets report in addition to “Münchner Merkur/tz”. Corresponding discussions are ongoing. His management did not want to comment on the issue when asked by t-online. Rangnick himself has now confirmed to the online portal “90 Minutes” that there was “contact from Bayern Munich”. During the course of Wednesday, both the “Süddeutsche” and the “Kicker” reported: Rangnick “just has to say yes” to Bayern.
So will Rangnick, known as the “football professor”, actually become the new Bayern coach? It would at least be a fitting final point in the record champions’ search for a coach, which is already full of twists and turns.
Rangnick and Hoeneß: pretty much best enemies
He developed into a kind of favorite opponent of Uli Hoeneß. The two became pretty much best enemies, so to speak. Verbal barbs flew back and forth regularly. “If this were a western, it would be about securing their scalp,” said Rangnick, for example, after he had secured the autumn championship with Hoffenheim in 2008 in their promotion year, before the direct duel and said: “If you want to hear quick sayings , then you have to go to Munich. If you want to see fast football, then you’ve come to the right place.”
In doing so, he countered Hoeneß, who had previously said in the Sport1 one-two: “Rangnick is a know-it-all who performs great in the first year and is fired in the second. Rangnick doesn’t understand how to deal with mountain air.” So can things really work out with Hoeneß as club patron and Rangnick as head coach? It can. Because all of these skirmishes are a thing of the past and have long since been dealt with. Hoeneß recently publicly praised Rangnick as a “great man”.
Bayern wanted Rangnick before
In 2017, the record champions even thought about Rangnick as sports director. And it’s not the first time that he’s been discussed as head coach in Munich. Before the cup final with Leipzig against Bayern with the then controversial Niko Kovač, Rangnick “knew or at least suspected: If I win today, I will be the coach of Bayern Munich on Monday.” The Munich team won the final 3-0. When Kovač was fired a few months later, the then CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge negotiated specifically with Rangnick.
Hoeneß revealed this to the “Leipziger Volkszeitung” in February 2023: “Even after Niko Kovač was on leave, I had the feeling that Karl-Heinz wanted Rangnick.” Sports director Hasan Salihamidžić and he “spoke out for Hansi Flick”. With him, Bayern then won the sextuple.
An explosive detail: As “Bild” reports, the Bayern professionals at the time were also said to have spoken out against signing Rangnick. As a result, a group of players approached the club bosses to veto the decision. However, it is not known exactly which professionals they were and whether they still play for the record champions today. Rangnick is considered a control freak who leaves nothing to chance, and it is not for nothing that he is nicknamed “Football Professor”. His last engagement as a club coach at Manchester United, which he coached from December 2021 to May 2022, was not very successful. And he said goodbye to the ÖFB.
No unconditional agreement with Rangnick
In any case, there is once again no unconditional agreement on the subject of Rangnick. Not all club bosses were convinced of the former Red Bull maker from the start, and some continue to view him critically. At least he wasn’t Bayern’s first desired solution, which became clear at the latest through the previous efforts to find Alonso and Nagelsmann. As members of the supervisory board, Rummenigge and Hoeneß also have an important say in the current coaching question.