FC Bayern is in the stranglehold of those who refuse to be vaccinated

The corona turbulence at FC Bayern has reached new dimensions and escalation levels around the next sporting failure of the Munich master ensemble in Augsburg. First a report by “Bild am Sonntag” caused a stir with intended salary cuts for the unvaccinated professionals in the Munich high-income roster. And just hours later, the soccer record champions were startled with the announcement that after leading figure Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Michael Cuisance had to go into quarantine in consultation with the responsible health authorities. The virus has Germany’s top club in a stranglehold.

Kimmich was not there on Friday evening at the surprising and “really angry” 2-1 at FC Augsburg, who made coach Julian Nagelsmann “really angry” – because of the contact with a person who tested positive in his private sphere. Now the executive was followed by the professional quartet who were still in the squad against the FCA. “You were in contact with a person in the immediate vicinity of the FC Bayern team who tested positive for the corona virus,” said the club. The quarantine ban spares vaccinated professionals.

Julian Nagelsmann is annoyed

“Without five” is the name of the personal solution for Coach Nagelsmann this Tuesday in the Champions League game at Dynamo Kiev. In Ukraine, Bayern want to win the group after qualifying in the round of 16. The annoying vaccination problem around Kimmich and Co. with its consequences for the club, team and the season’s goals was further heated up over the weekend. As an excuse for the defeat at FC Augsburg, Nagelsmann’s corona problem and Kimmich’s failure in midfield were still “too clumsy”.

The trainer, who was recently infected himself, has long since been annoyed by the amount of background noise two weeks before the summit in Dortmund. The Borussia closed up to one point to the league prime.

The Bayern bosses around Oliver Kahn have long been in a dilemma from which they are looking for a way out. The fourth wave raging through the country hit the Bayern staff with force: with infections like the vaccinated defenders Niklas Süle and Josip Stanisic, with some supervisors and employees in the immediate vicinity of the team – but also with the avoidable quarantine consequences of the unvaccinated.

Rummenigge: Kimmich won’t like that

The “Bild am Sonntag” now revealed a “tough consequence” of the club’s management. It goes to the wallet. The formula is: Anyone who, as an unvaccinated professional, has to be in isolation as a contact person should have to forego parts of the lush million salary for the downtime.

The association did not comment on the report. The Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who was in office until the summer, said on “Sky 90”: “If what the Bild-Zeitung reports is correct, it is certainly to be understood as a sign that the club is now reacting,” he said further well-connected Bayern insiders. “He won’t like that,” speculated Rummenigge about Kimmich’s reaction.

The bosses around Kahn feel compelled to act. Failure of top players like Kimmich or Gnabry endangers sporting success. At the same time, your vaccinated teammates should go to the third spade. Home games with significantly fewer spectators in the Allianz Arena cost FC Bayern many millions, which could also be missing for contract extensions with some (vaccinated) stars.

Neuer says a telling sentence

Rummenigge spoke openly about what is going on on the boardroom floor and in the players’ cabin. “It’s a debate that is slowly becoming annoying for the club. Everyone has tried to clear up the issue of non-vaccination or to find a solution. That has not been successful so far.” After the gossip in Augsburg, captain Manuel Neuer said a sentence that sounded diplomatic but was telling: “We always want a Jo Kimmich in the team and on the pitch.”

The midfielder – cornerstone in the Munich team such as goalkeeper Neuer, goal hunter Robert Lewandowski or leader Thomas Müller – sat healthy at home. Newcomer Marcel Sabitzer was supposed to slip into the Kimmich role – and was overwhelmed with it. “There is much, much more in Sabi,” puzzled Nagelsmann. He did not want to pinpoint the defeat to Kimmich’s absence. Other clubs are more likely to complain if they fail: “We at Bayern Munich shouldn’t do it.” Rummenigge assessed the Augsburg game differently: “No club in the world can replace players like Joshua Kimmich.”

What if the clock is missing in Dortmund on December 4th? And maybe Gnabry and the others who are always at risk of quarantine? Kimmich has been out of his training and game rhythm for two weeks after having missed the last international matches of the year like Gnabry and Musiala. Even before Augsburg, Nagelsmann described it as a “fact” that the risk of unvaccinated actors was significantly greater than those who had been vaccinated to miss more games and training units in corona weddings. “It’s on the platter.”