Anyone who has been around Bayern Munich and/or German football for quite some time is fully aware that former Bayern president Uli Hoeneß is never one to shy away from speaking what is truly on his mind. His unfiltered, bold nature when speaking to the press has been known to cause unrest in and around the club, both while he had an official seat in the club’s front office, and even after then, though he is still considered to be the honorary president and is still consulted in certain matters by
the executive and supervisory boards.
In his recent appearance on SPORT1-Dopplepass last weekend, Hoeneß stoked the fires when he spoke about a number of topics at both Bayern and the German national team. He made brazen comments about Nicolas Jackson’s buy-on clause terms for his loan deal from Chelsea, Nick Woltemade being worth nowhere near his price tag, how Bayern handled the summer transfer window, and the state of the German national team after the most recent international break. He also spoke about former Bayern and Germany midfielder Lothar Matthäus, who is also an outspoken voice on all things Bayern and Germany between his punditry duties and column writing in addition to his television broadcast appearances.
During the Dopplepass appearance, Hoeneß made a point of taking a subtle jab at Matthäus when he was talking about the relationship the pair of figureheads have. “We met at the women’s game yesterday and shook hands. Otherwise, we have little to say to each other because he hasn’t gone back to his senses yet,” Hoeneß explained, making a reference to the differing opinions the two have on the valuation of Woltemade (via @iMiaSanMia).
Expectedly, Matthäus did not waste the opportunity to provide a retort to the comments publicly made by Hoeneß. For him, he feels that a lot of the passive aggressiveness from Bayern’s honorary president stems from regrets that he might have from his time as acting president of the club, whether it’s decisions he either made or didn’t make, thing he wished he’d have done differently, or anything else along those lines. “I feel sorry for Uli when he presents himself like this in public. His personal attacks haven’t bothered me for a long time. I have the feeling he’s not happy with himself and many of his decisions in recent years. I don’t want to comment on him anymore. He’s always easy to provoke. I can’t understand his statements. People from FC Bayern contacted me and apologized for Uli’s embarrassing statements,” Matthäus ranted.
For what it’s worth, Matthäus isn’t the first person to trade verbal jousts with Hoeneß and he certainly won’t be the last, but it’s never a good look for Bayern’s optics as well as the German national team. Their passion for club and country can often times be misconstrued and misrepresented amongst the press, but there can never be a question of them not wanting what’s best for the club and national team — they both want nothing but the best for both.
