Matthäus slams "unrest" at Bayern: "No player there can win the Ballon d'Or"
| Lothar Matthäus. | Photo: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Lothar Matthäus has hit out at the "unrest" that has plagued Bayern Munich in recent years, saying that the ship needs to be steadied if any of the club's players are to have a serious chance of winning the Ballon d'Or.
The 35-year-old former German international was responding to Bayern board member for sport Max Eberl's criticism of Jamal Musiala's absence from the Ballon d'Or shortlist.
And while Matthäus agrees that Musiala should have been on the list, he points out that things need to change at Bayern if the 21-year-old is to have a real chance of winning the award.
"With the level of unrest at FC Bayern over the past two years, no player there can win the Ballon d'Or" Matthäus told Bild.
"To win individual awards, you simply have to win titles with your team. Part of why I won the Ballon d'Or in 1990 is that we played well at Inter and that I won the World Cup with the German team. You can play brilliantly as an individual and score a lot of goals, but if you don't win with your team, you have little chance of winning such awards.
“For Jamal to get closer to his goal of winning the Ballon d'Or, the club needs to start winning again. And for that to happen, the ‘Mia San Mia’ feeling, which has completely disappeared in recent times, has to grow again in the team, but also in the boardroom.”
Bayern endured a chaotic 2022/23 campaign, which saw Julian Nagelsmann replaced by Thomas Tuchel as head coach in the second half of the season. The club eventually won the Bundesliga, but in unconvincing fashion, and club bosses Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic were relieved of their duties on the final day of the season.
Last season, with Tuchel at the helm, Bayern didn't win a single trophy, finishing third in the Bundesliga, being knocked out of the Champions League semi-finals by Real Madrid and crashing out of the DFB-Pokal against 3. Liga side Saarbrücken.
Now, with Vincent Kompany in charge, the Bavarians are hoping to return to form and stability.