European champions, FC Bayern München have announced that they will not sell Austrian international, David Alaba in January despite reports that the left back is on the verge of leaving the Bundesliga club during the next transfer window.
Reports that Alaba might leave Bayern emerged after transfer talks between the Austrian player and the Bavarian club broke down.
Bayern Munich President, Herbert Hainer revealed last week that the German champions have withdrawn their contract offer for Alaba, whose current deal expires next year.
“A new situation has arisen over the weekend. We made David and his agent a very, very good offer some time ago, we negotiated for months and we find the offer very fair and competitive – especially in today’s world,” Hainer told BR.
“We told David’s representatives at the last meeting that we wanted to have clarity by the end of October and an answer, because for such an important position and personnel we want to have planning security.
“We heard nothing until yesterday. Our sporting director, Hasan Salihamidzic, asked the agent again actively, and the answer was that the offer is still unsatisfying and that we should think about it again. As a result, we decided to take the offer completely off the table. That means there is no longer an offer.”
However, according to Sport Bild, the Bavarians have offered a five-year contract worth up to 16 million euros per year and manager Hansi Flick is keen to keen to keep the player as long as possible, indicating that it is likely Alaba will now remain with the club.
Bayern appear to have learned their lesson from Alaba’s contract saga and now want to tie their key players to new contracts relatively early. The negotiations with Leon Goretzka (contract until 2022) are expected to take place soon.
The German giants also want to hold talks with Leon Goretzka’s agent Jörg Neubauer over a new contract before the end of the year. Even though he does not rule out a move abroad in the future, Goretzka knows that currently there’s hardly a better destination than FC Bayern.
