On the occasion of his farewell to FC Bayern Munich, Rafinha published a farewell article via Instagram. Pikant: Coach Niko Kovac is not mentioned. The departure of James Rodriguez is not just a sporting challenge for the record champion. The Bavarian amateurs could get a striker from Wolfsburg.
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On the occasion of his farewell to FC Bayern Munich, Rafinha published a farewell article via Instagram in which he thanked all decision-makers and coaches who accompanied him in Germany to Schalke 04 and the German record champion for “great 13 years”. However, Niko Kovac was not mentioned.
Whether Rafinha knowingly did this or simply forgot about Kovac is not clear from the Instagram post. However, the relationship between the current Bayern coach and the veteran had been considered to be undercooled for some time. At the end of February, Rafinha Kovac had even publicly criticised Kovac because of the short periods of operation.
“Lately, the coach has been wrong about me. I perform in training. It’s hard for me to motivate myself. I train well, but I don’t play a role,” said Rafinha.
The 33-year-old leaves FC Bayern this summer after eight years. Previously Rafinha had played for FC Schalke 04 for five years, but in his last season with the record champions Rafinha was rarely used. In the last seven Bundesliga games, Rafinha only had eleven minutes to play. While Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery were substituted in Kovac’s last home game, Rafinha sat on the bench for 90 minutes.
The departure of James Rodriguez could not only mean a sporting setback for FC Bayern Munich. Due to his presence in the social media, the Colombian was also a financially strong instrument. Experts calculated in the picture that the Bavarians could miss a million euro sum in the double-digit range.
“To put it bluntly, the James farewell costs Bavaria at least 20 million euros a year. Provided it cannot be adequately replaced from a marketing point of view,” Friedhelm Mienert told the daily newspaper. James alone on Instagram united over 40 million followers.
The offensive player was also an important reference point for FC Bayern on the South American continent. There James is a great star beyond Colombia’s borders and is strongly represented in the entire Spanish-speaking area.
On Wednesday, the German record champion announced that he would not draw the purchase option of 42 million euros for James after the expiry of the two-year loan. CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said that the player himself had asked for it and that a firm commitment therefore “made no sense”.
First, James will return to Real Madrid. However, a stay in the Spanish capital is considered unlikely. James has recently been associated with a number of top European clubs. So the SSC Naples, Manchester United and also Juventus should be interested.
