Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has admitted that reports linking him to Bayern Munich are an ‘honour’ but insisted he won’t be distracted by the talks.
The German defender is out of contract next summer and so far hasn’t signed a new deal with the reigning European champions.
That means he is free to talk to clubs in Europe about a free transfer next summer come the January transfer window and several big names are reportedly interested.
One of them are Bayern Munich, who have been named as suitors regularly over the last few weeks and are believed to be looking at Rudiger as a potential replacement for Niklas Sule, whose contract also expires next summer.
The German giants are reportedly ready to offer Rudiger big money to make the move from Chelsea, although the extent of their willingness has been exaggerated in the media.
Nonetheless, the interest is there, and that led to Rudiger being questioned about it during a press conference with Germany yesterday.
“I make my decisions for myself. They are not dependent on others,” Sport 1 report him saying.
“Of course it (the Bayern rumours) honours you. But I don’t allow myself to be distracted.
“I have an obligation to my club to perform. I have to prove myself anew every game, and I can’t let myself be distracted by rumours.”
That would seemingly quash the rumours slightly in the short-term, with the Chelsea man clearly indicating he’s not focusing on the rumours around him.
Toni Rüdiger about the interest of @FCBayern: „the interest honors me. that shows that I've done a few things right recently.“ @ChelseaFC @FCBayern
— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) October 5, 2021
Except, SportBILD journalist Christian Falk has something different, quoting the defender as saying: “The interest honours me. That shows that I’ve done a few things right recently.“
That second line is obviously a very different tone to what Sport 1 put forward, so it’s a little hard to work out what Rudiger’s actual stance is.
There is, though, every chance that Rudiger said both things and Sport1 simply felt the quotes they had were better than what Falk is going with.
Either way, we’re sure these comments are going to blow up quickly so at least when you do see them, you have both sides of the story and can make a decision for yourself when the inevitable ‘Rudiger confirms interest in Bayern Munich transfer’ stories appear.
