Central defender Jerome Boateng does not rule out staying with FC Bayern Munich despite recent statements by President Uli Hoeneß.
“I’m definitely not gonna run away from here. Situations change quickly,” Boateng told the kicker, stressing that he could “clearly imagine that things could continue at FC Bayern”.
Hoeneß had suggested a change to Boateng, who was only central defender number three last season behind Mats Hummels and Niklas Süle, at last Sunday’s double celebrations: “I would recommend him as a friend to leave the club. He needs a new challenge, he looks like a foreign body,” Hoeneß told BR.
However, the 30-year-old vehemently resisted accusations that he no longer focused fully on his profession as a professional footballer: “I’m still burning, I’m hot. I’m going to attack in the new season.”
In addition, Boateng spoke about the burst transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in August last year, which the Bavarians put a stop to at short notice: “I had already left with my head,” the Berlin-born admits, explaining: “If you get such a secure promise and an adequate sum is paid, but it suddenly means no, something will collapse in you.
In the past season Boateng, who was recently associated with Inter Milan and by Stefan Effenberg also with Borussia Dortmund, played 28 compulsory games for the champion and cup winner.
Particularly in the second half of the season, the 76-time German international was not in Niko Kovac’s starting eleven in the important games, but could not always understand the coach’s decisions: “I could turn myself on my head and play well. […] I was nevertheless out in certain games,” Boateng said about the second half of the season, stressing that Kovac’s reasons for his reservist role partly left him with question marks: “Then why am I the one who had to get out?
Boateng, whose absence at the FCB’s official championship celebration fired rumours of farewell, has a contract in Munich until the summer of 2021. Since 2011, he wears the Bavarian jersey and had moved from Manchester City to the Isar.
