There’s A Left Back For Sale

By: chris | April 23rd, 2008

Many fans knew who Philipp Lahm was before the World Cup in ‘06. Everybody knew who he was afterwards, and it took only the first six minutes of the tournament for most to sit up and take notice, as you can see above. Well now some people are sitting up and taking notice again, because arguably the most talented young left-back in the world just effectively put himself on the transfer market. And even if he doesn’t leave this summer, he’ll surely be due a fat contract for the summer of 2009. (This is the part where everybody in Munich makes way for the stampede of sporting directors from the artist formerly known as G14.)

Instead of point-blank asking to be put on the transfer list, Philipp took a more indirect route by refusing to discuss a contract extension for his current deal which happens to expire in June of 2009, in the process saying he is interested in a move abroad. This gives Bayern a choice: Let him go for free next summer and risk losing millions upon millions in a transfer fee or sell him to the highest bidder during the sunny months. Given that Bayern does alright in the financial department it isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion he’ll be sold, but a betting man will certainly place his chips with Lahm exiting stage Bavaria this summer.

The two most bantered about destinations are Manchester United and Barcelona, and whaddya know, Lahm wants a move to either “England or Spain”. Well that certainly adds more fuel to those fires. And then Philip goes and makes a perhaps truthful but nonetheless stinging assessment of the happenings at FC Bayern:

“There are a handful of teams who have more financial clout than the Bavarian giants. These teams play with yet more tempo and security” Lahm added. “And for every professional the biggest motivation is to win titles – above all the Champions League. The bigger the club, the greater the probability that you will win it. I don’t believe that we will be able to make it to the Champions League final in 2009.”

Tell us how you really feel.

So basically “financial clout” means he’ll be accepting deals from the Big Four in the Prem and either Real or Barcelona. Looks like Lahm will be dazzling the world abroad in the next couple years, and Bayern is going to be fielding a ton of phone calls this summer – whether they decide to sell or not.

My favorite part, however, was how the official Bayern website decided to announce the deal:

“The talks between Bayern and Philipp Lahm about an early extension to his contract have not led to an agreement.

“The record champions therefore on Tuesday withdrew their original offer.”

What feckin’ club website refers to itself in the third person as “record champions”? On the scale of arrogance from 1-10, that’s at least a 37.5. No wonder so many people hate them.