Reschke claims he had to convince Rummenigge to sign Joshua Kimmich
Michael Reschke claims he had to convince Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to sign Joshua Kimmich for Bayern München in 2015.
Former Bayern München technical director Michael Reschke has revealed how Joshua Kimmich's move to the club came about in 2015.
At the time, Kimmich was contracted to Stuttgart and had just spent two years on loan at RB Leipzig, who wanted to sign him on a permanent basis, but Bayern ultimately won the race for the highly-rated midfielder, paying around €8.5m for his services.
At first, however, Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge wasn't too sold on the idea of signing Kimmich, according to Reschke.
"Kimmich was the first major signing for which I was primarily responsible. At the Under-19 European Championship in 2014, there were a number of interesting players, such as Nilas Stark, Julian Brandt and Levin Öztunali. We were particularly interested in Joshua Kimmich. He was clearly the strongest and most interesting player for me at the European Championship," Reschke said on the podcast 'Meine Bayern Woche' and added:
"In the final contract talks with Stuttgart, [Jochen] Schneider (Stuttgart's sporting director at the time) told me that they respected Joshua's wish to move to Munich. But Ralf Rangnick (RB Leipzig's sporting director at the time) got in touch and said he was willing to put down some real money, which meant €4-5 million definitely wouldn't be enough to sign him. I had to swallow that pill."
"Rummenigge told me: 'With all due respect, we know how much you value the player, but nearly €10 million for someone who hasn't played a minute of Bundesliga football is a lot of money and unusually much for Bayern.
"I went out on a limb at the time, telling Rummenigge that for a future German international, who would play a key role at Bayern München for years to come, that wasn't a lot of money. I was firmly convinced that we had to sign this player for Bayern München."
Kimmich ended up joining Bayern in July 2015 and has since gone to make 254 appearances for the Bavarian club, racking up 28 goals and 71 assists.