“Your m … money is not enough.” The honorary president of Bayern Uli Hoeness is unleashed against Paris Saint-Germain, its president Al-Khelaïfi, and against Manchester City, the new rich of Europe, in a podcast devoted to his life [en allemand] airing from Friday 12 November.
Is Nasser Al Khelaïfi the new Uli Hoeness? asks the interviewer: “No, I don’t think so, I don’t know if he likes football”, he retorts. “The difference between him and me? I worked hard to earn my money, and he received it as a gift, he insists. We put it at his disposal and he doesn’t need to work for that. When he wants a player, he will find his emir. “
Despite their exorbitant budgets, “So far these two clubs have won nothing at all. Nothing at all! Nothing at all!”, rejoices the 1974 world champion. Paris SG and Manchester City have won national titles, but “neither of them have a Champions League title at all”, continues the man who made Bayern Munich, in four decades, a giant of European football (six Champions Leagues) without resorting to debt or a multimillionaire investor.
In 2020, Bayern beat Paris SG in the Champions League final (1-0), then PSG took their revenge last season in the quarter-finals (3-2 / 0-1). “They will lose against us again. Not always, but from time to time”, prophesies Hoeness, “and that must be our goal. And when we win against them, that makes me very happy (…) That’s what stimulates me, to show them: ‘Your money from m …, that’s not enough'” .
And to sharply criticize the economic model of Paris SG, compared to that of Bayern: “What is currently happening in Paris is one-year planning (…) It is not my universe. I see things from an economic point of view. my bet in one fell swoop, just so that they come and congratulate me for a year or two and after me the flood. “
“When we make decisions, we must ensure that we still have security in three, four years, that everything does not collapse suddenly”, continues the 69-year-old leader, who still sits on Bayern’s supervisory board, from which he stepped down as chairman in 2019.
“To get there, I am also ready to risk this or that title”, he asserts. “When you’ve won 60 titles like me, it’s not as important as if you’ve only won one or two (…) Franz (Beckenbauer), Karl-Heinz (Rummenigge) and me are so clad with titles that we can afford to put the future of the club ahead of day-to-day business when making decisions. “ Privately, Hoeness made his fortune in the delicatessen, but also served 21 months in prison for tax evasion between 2014 and 2016.