When Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski decided to depart for a new adventure in the summer of 2022, it left the German record champions in a bind. Top-class strikers are not exactly a dime a dozen on the transfer market, and the ones that might come available would not have cost exactly a dime (or even a dozen of them).
So the Bayern sporting regime at the time, headed by sporting director Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidžić and including technical director Marco Neppe and then-coach Julian Nagelsmann,
went an unconventional route: playing without a true striker and relying on Nagelsmann’s tactical prowess to conjure the goals.
It worked, but it sort of didn’t. Bayern scored lots of goals — 92 on the season — but wobbled on the table, falling to an unusual number of last minute draws and dropped points, and Nagelsmann was sacked in March. Lewandowski’s replacement, Sadio Mané, quickly found himself shunted to the left wing, with the No. 9 role left to Lewandowski’s deputy, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Then the next summer Bayern went and got Harry Kane, and has not worried about the striker position since.
“When I look back over the past 20 years and consider the transfers we’ve made, Harry is among the two or three most important signings in FC Bayern’s history,” said former Bayern executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in comments captured by Az journalist Maximilian Koch (via @iMiaSanMia). “In 2022, Julian Nagelsmann and Hasan Salihamidžić believed that we could play without a number nine. That was a serious mistake. Robert Lewandowski was sold to FC Barcelona and Sadio Mané was brought in from Liverpool.
“That mistake was corrected with the signing of Harry.”
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