Bayern Munich are one of the financially powerful clubs in world football, but they will never be going after players like Lionel Messi according to the club’s former manager Ottmar Hitzfeld.
Messi is considered as one of the greatest players of his generation alongside names like Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. These players are expected to cost in the region of £ 100 million if Bayern were to make an offer in the summer transfer window. Even though the club are extremely rich with especially great commercial revenue means, they will not be going out to buy superstars since they have never done business in such a manner.
Hitzfeld’s comments come in the wake of Bayern already making moves for the summer by signing Portuguese teenager Renato Sanches for a whopping € 35 million from Benfica. He is one of the first signings of the Carlo Ancelotti era. The Italian will take over from Pep Guardiola in the next few weeks. Ancelotti is targeting the opportunity to win a league title in yet another different country after having achieved immense success in Italy, England, France, and Spain. Bayern have just won the domestic double and summer signingDouglas Costa was a major factor.
Costa was signed from Shakhtar Donetsk for € 30 million and theseare the kind of signings Bayern want make, according to Hitzfeld. "Buying a big name like Messi, Ronaldo, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, Neymar or [Luis] Suarez ... that's something Bayern would not do. It's not the philosophy of Bayern to pay colossal wages or to pay maybe €100 million and upwards for a top player. That wouldn't be Bayern's style. Bayern can improve within strong financial limits which you can see in the case of Renato Sanches. He has already played a lot of games, scored goals, assisted many goals,” said Hitzfeld.