You may have heard of the story how Uli Hoeneß prevented the transfer of Xavi Simons to Bayern Munich, and how he vetoed the notion proposed by Vincent Kompany and Christoph Freund and instead recommending promoting youth talent. Kompany was asked if he was still following Simons and if he were to make a play for him in the future, which he said was out of his hands.
“We’re an active group together, Christoph, Max [Eberl], Jan [Dreesen] and myself. We always try to convince people,” Kompany began
(as captured by X account @iMiaSanMia). “We work in a good atmosphere with a lot of respect. You should ask Max and Christoph about what will happen in the next transfer window. We accept what the club decides.”
Interestingly, Kompany told Hoeneß during that exchange that ‘At our age, you would have pushed as much as we did’. In the end, Simons moved to Tottenham Hotspur and looks nowhere near the reported €65 million that the Lilywhites paid RB Leipzig.
All things considered, this is, what us younger ones would say, a rare W from Uli.
