Joshua Kimmich’s contract renewal at Bayern Munich is not going as smoothly as had been hoped.
Kimmich, now 30 and the captain of the German national team, is out of contract this summer. For the past few months, the mood has very much favoured an extension. Several senior Bayern executives, including Jan-Christian Dreesen, the CEO, and Max Eberl, the board member for sport, have spoken warmly of Kimmich’s value to the club, both now and as a future captain, and negotiations for a new contract have been advanced for some time.
Over the last week, however, the situation has veered into melodrama.
Having agreed a three-year extension in principle, Kimmich was given a deadline to sign his new contract. That was allowed to pass. In response, German tabloid Bild reported late last week that Bayern — frustrated by the time Kimmich was taking to decide on his future — had withdrawn their offer.
It’s become one of those Bayern stories. One which has a new wrinkle each day, and around which all sorts of former players hold strident views.
“At some point (Kimmich) has to make a statement,” Lothar Matthaus told Sky Sport’s Sky90 programme over the weekend.
“He has been involved in international football for a long time. He knows what he has at Bayern Munich, he has been able to examine his offers. At some point, Bayern Munich need to make a decision in order to be able to plan for the future.”
Stefan Effenberg, the former Bayern and German international midfielder, was more forthright still, demanding on Sport1’s Doppelpass that Kimmich make his position clear as soon as possible.
“What’s stopping Kimmich presenting himself in public as a leader and saying: ‘I’m staying at the club or I’m leaving in the summer’?”
Effenberg, like others who have commented, recognised Kimmich’s value to the team, but supported Bayern’s stance, saying that his individual situation cannot be allowed to come at the cost of the team’s future.
“I think Bayern are doing the right thing,” he added. “You have to push hard, because at some point you need clarity about how you are going to plan for next season and that’s fair.”
That’s the crux of the issue. Clearly, Kimmich is at a junction in his career, but this situation has been on the horizon for a long time and, for many, including members of Bayern’s supervisory board, a decision is overdue.
Kimmich has been restored to the No 6 role at Bayern by Vincent Kompany (Marco Steinbrenner/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
So, what next?
The “withdrawn” offer is not quite as it sounds — it’s not the end of the road for Kimmich and Bayern. That particular contract offer was withdrawn and there will be no more financial negotiations, but there is still hope that he will sign an extension. There was dialogue between the club and the player over the weekend and it was hardly adversarial.
Christoph Freund, the sporting director, was asked about the Kimmich situation following the 3-1 win over Stuttgart on Friday night and he struck a conciliatory tone.
“I can only stress that we have had really good and fair talks with Jo over the last few months,” he said. “We will continue to do so. A decision will be made very soon. We are in direct contact with Jo and that is the most important thing.”
One way or another, a decision seems likely in the coming days; the odds still favour a renewal, too.
But that still prompts the more intriguing issue of what the right move actually is.
Kimmich has options elsewhere. Arsenal have considered Kimmich as a candidate to replace Jorginho in the summer. But he is believed to be one of just several midfielders being evaluated by the Premier League side and not currently a priority. Barcelona, coached by Kimmich’s former club and national team manager, Hansi Flick, are another potential option, while Paris Saint-Germain expressed interest in the summer of 2024.
What does Kimmich want? After eight Bundesliga titles (soon to be nine) and a Champions League win in 2020, the desire for a new challenge in a different country is easy to appreciate.
Positional guarantees are a factor, too. Kimmich considers himself a midfielder and, while Vincent Kompany has restored him to the No 6 role this season — after Thomas Tuchel used him predominantly as a full-back in 2023-24 — he has played extremely well.
Nevertheless, with Aleksandar Pavlovic an exceptional midfield prospect, Joao Palhinha having arrived for a big fee last summer, and Hoffenheim’s thrillingly talented Tom Bischof due to complete his free transfer at the end of this season, commanding a full-time place — even for a player of Kimmich’s class — will increasingly become a challenge over the next three years.
Hoffenheim’s Tom Bischof (left) will join Bayern in the summer (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)
And on Friday night, with Kimmich sidelined by an Achilles injury, Bayern won that crucial game in Stuttgart with a starting midfield pivot of Palhinha and Leon Goretzka. That pair functioned with balance and chemistry. Individually, both gave arguably their best performances of the season and put themselves in contention to start against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
So, while Kimmich is always assured a certain gravity at Bayern, his playing role in a competitive part of the pitch is less clear. Criticism over his dallying is understandable, but this is not necessarily an easy decision for him nor one he could be expected to make instinctively.
And while the offer of a renewal seemed straightforward for Bayern, that too is a tricky calculation.
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Having just completed hefty contract extensions for Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies, this would be another major expense. Currently, Kimmich earns more than €350,000 (£289,000; $366,000) per week and would renew on similar terms at a time when the club are trying to reduce their wage bill and re-engineer its demographics.
Kimmich is an icon in Munich. He is enormously popular with the club’s fans and admired by his team-mates and by younger German players around the league. But, adjacent to the conversation about his contract is a further media discussion, about whether the club’s resources might be better directed towards signing Stuttgart’s Angelo Stiller — a Munich-born No 6 and Bayern academy product who has already been capped by Germany — or if allowing Kimmich to leave might provide the extra financial leeway to sign Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz in the summer of 2026.
The trouble is that there’s not really a right answer. Both directions make sense. Equal arguments exist in support of extending Kimmich’s contract and allowing him to move away. As they do for him personally, given what he has already achieved and what else he might want to accomplish.
It’s the perfect Bayern saga.
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(Top photo: Markus Gilliar – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
