The impression the German media have given about Bayern Munich’s failure to get Callum Hudson-Odoi from Chelsea is one of disappointment.
Bayern were clearly very keen on the youngster and wanted to recruit him during the winter market. They spoke publicly about it and at one stage the confidence in Germany made it feel like the January move was a matter of when and not if.
Chelsea stood firm, they simply weren’t prepared to see the player go midway through the season, and that was that.
Well, the disappointment in Germany isn’t universal. Bild journalist Raimund Hinko is delighted the transfer failed, and he feels there’s far too much attention from the Bundesliga on young English talents.
Hinko, in a column for SportBild, says that given the hype around the player, he ‘almost thought that there was a new Maradona or Messi discovered’. He believes it’s a ‘blessing’ for Bayern that the ‘insane’ €40m transfer didn’t happen, and criticism is sent the way of the ‘squad planners’ in Bavaria.
Jadon Sancho’s success at Borussia Dortmund has created a situation which Hinko believes is making other clubs think there’s great talent to be taken from English clubs: ‘For the Bundesliga, it is a fatal sign that almost all – even relegation candidates – pull any young people from English boarding schools whose names, except professional scouts, nobody has ever heard.
‘I am especially sorry for Jogi Löw. If it goes on like that, we can get rid of the national team right away. So that it does not become as insignificant as the English one of not so long ago. Why should we train players in the Bundesliga for national coach Gareth Southgate? We should keep a little pride.’
Of course, Hinko has ‘nothing against foreigners in the Bundesliga’, he’s just against some foreigners in the Bundesliga, specifically very young ones, and believes at least half of a club’s squad should be made up of Germans.
