Grades for business done by Bayern Munich in summer

Departures

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Striker)- Grade A+

Without any disrespect to Choupo-Moting, allowing him to leave as a free agent was the right decision made by Bayern. Having acquired 30-year-old Harry Kane in 2023 to lead the attack, it would have been detrimental to squad planning to keep the 35-year-old Cameroon international as his backup after having just agreed a contract extension with 19-year-old Mathys Tel until June 2029. Bayern fans would have been grateful to ‘Choupo’ for the four seasons that he donned the Bavarian shirt.

Matthijs de Ligt (Center-back)- Grade B-

When your best defender is put up for sale as part of a planned squad overhaul, at the very least eyebrows would be raised, at worst there can be uproar. The Bayern hierarchy got both.  When it was announced that Matthijs de Ligt would be sold to Manchester United thousands of fans signed a petition in a show of protest.

Despite not having the combined strength and pace of either Dayot Upamecano or Kim min-jae, in his two seasons at Bayern the 25-year-old Dutch international displayed better in-game decision making than either of the two, whilst at times playing with his heart on his sleeve for the club.

Bayern chiefs reportedly decided to sell the Dutchman for economic reasons due to a combination of his high salary and injury record. Whilst for football reasons it was claimed that quicker defenders were preferred to him as the in-game strategy is for the team to defend higher up the pitch. Even so, it’s not unreasonable to think that a coach who was once a world-class defender working with a world-class medical team could develop the player into the leader at the back which Die Roten is seemingly still lacking. Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae need to step up this season and Hiroki Ito will have to hit the ground running to compensate for the departure of De Ligt.

Noussair Mazraoui (Right-back)- Grade A

Noussair Mazraoui rounds up the departures list for Bayern in the summer. The 26-year-old Moroccan international was also sold to Manchester United. Whilst Mazraoui wasn’t a flop during his two seasons in Bavaria, he wasn’t able to nail down a spot in the starting XI. It’s a shame that he couldn’t play regularly during the debut season due to COVID-19-induced health complications.

Notwithstanding marked improvements from Mazraoui in his second season, the arrival of Sacha Boey from Galatasaray in January and the subsequent return of a much-improved Josip Stanišić from successful loan-spell at Bayer Leverkusen, meant Bayern were now stacked at right-back. With the Moroccan being the eldest of the three players and having initially joined Bayern on a free transfer, his sale for €15 million made sense from both footballing and economic perspectives.