Former Bayern Munich midfielder Sebastian Rudy recently spoke about his brief time with the club and opened up about what went wrong.
“Unfortunately, it was only a year. I would have liked to have played for FC Bayern longer. But that always depends on the individual coaches and management,” the now 35-year-old told Spox (as captured by Tz). “(It was) clear that I wasn’t planned for the starting eleven, but that as a squad player I would get 14 or 15 appearances. In the early stages of the season,
I also had a lot of playing time under Carlo Ancelotti. Unfortunately, he was soon dismissed.”
Jupp Heynckes took over for Ancelotti and limited his rotations to establish some sort of foundation for the squad that Ancelotti could never get around to doing.
When Niko Kovač was hired after his successful run at Eintracht Frankfurt, Rudy knew his days were numbered.
“During preseason training in 2018, it quickly became clear that the new coach wasn’t planning on using me. So, I had to take action. I didn’t want to spend my prime on the bench,” Rudy noted.
Rudy moved to Schalke 04 that summer, but it was an ill-fit at a time where the club was in a state of chaos internally.
“It’s not just Schalke’s fault that things went wrong – I certainly contributed to it as well. Nevertheless, I learned a lot from that period. I matured as a person and learned to handle pressure better. That toughened me up,” said Rudy.
The midfielder went back to Hoffenheim, but was a shell of his former self and eventually retired in 2023.
Football is crazy, though, and Rudy currently plays for SpG Dilsberg/Bammental II in the Heidelberg district league, while working as a scout for Hoffenheim.
Ultimately, Rudy wants to be a coach: “My goal is to become a youth coach. I think I’m quite good at it.”
BFW Commentary
Simply put, the move to Bayern Munich was ill-advised for Rudy, who was even a member of the German national team at one point. Heck, some will point to his broken nose against Sweden in the 2018 World Cup as one of the moments where Germany lost its grip on the tournament. While the Germans won that game on a legendary free kick from Toni Kroos, the squad had lost the stability that Rudy had brought to the table in the midfield.
Anyway, with no room for him and no plan for how to use him at Bayern Munich, Rudy became a forgotten man in Bavaria (he was not the first and definitely will not be the last), which had a detrimental effect on his career.
The lesson here? Make sure that when you make a move, the club is just not stockpiling talent, but actually has a plan for how to use you.
When Rudy arrived at the club, Bayern Munich already had Javi Martínez, Joshua Kimmich, Corentin Tolisso, Niklas Dorsch, Thiago Alcántara, Arturo Vidal, and Renato Sanches, limiting the available playing time for Rudy.
While not all of those players lasted the season (or even started the season with the first team), it was way too big of a logjam for anyone to think many minutes would open up consistently. In addition, Bayern Munich was already setting up plans to secure Leon Goretzka from Schalke 04 for the 2018/19 campaign by that point.
Rudy was truly a victim of the numbers game at Bayern Munich and he paid for it as he was never the same player after his stint with the Bavarians.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- New, improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
