Moroccan starman Ismael Saibari is set to become Bayern Munich's first marquee signing of the summer, pending his medical tests. Bayern Munich and PSV Eindhoven have agreed to a €55 million fee for the reigning Eredivisie Player of the Season to make the switch to the Allianz Arena.
Vincent Kompany has long been an admirer of Saibari's tactical versatility, defined by his ability to operate with equal efficacy as an attacking midfielder, a false nine, or across both flanks.
Having registered a staggering 57 goal contributions over his last two seasons in the Netherlands, the 25-year-old has carried that irresistible form straight into the 2026 World Cup, most recently finding the back of the net in Morocco's 1-1 draw against Brazil.
Upon the official completion of the deal, Saibari will become the fourth Moroccan international to pull on the famous red shirt. He arrives at a club where his compatriots have historically experienced contrasting fortunes and faced vastly different trajectories in Bavaria.
Let's take a trip down memory lane to see how his predecessors fare at Bayern Munich.
Mehdi Benatia
Mehdi Benatia was brought in with a €28 million price tag from AS Roma under Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2014. The centre-back, then 27, came off an excellent season in Italy and was expected to flourish into an aerially dominant centre-back next to Jerome Boateng.
He was generally decent on the pitch, adding some much-needed physicality to the backline.
However, his tenure was unmemorable because of how injury-plagued it was. Benatia only featured in 15 and 14 Bundesliga games for Bayern in two seasons, respectively.
In 2016, Benatia returned to Serie A on loan to Juventus before completing the permanent move to Turin in 2017. In his two seasons at the Allianz Arena, he won two Bundesliga titles and one DFB-Pokal, a decent turnout nonetheless.
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