FRANZ BECKENBAUER

The German legend Franz Beckenbauer has issued a statement saying that Bayern Munich will struggle a lot to finish this season successfully. Bayern Munich are the most successful club in Germany, but they have not been the consistent club over the last few seasons. It has been aptly reflected this season, as they have been struggling to keep up their good form from the start of the season. Even though they started the season brilliantly by scoring a lot of goals, Bayern Munich have found it difficult to win matches of late. As a result, they are currently second in the Bundesliga table behind Borussia Dortmund.

Following the shock 1-0 loss to FC Basel in the last 16 of the Champions League, Franz Beckenbauer has said that he is extremely sceptical about the chances of Bayern Munich finishing the season successfully. Speaking ahead of the match with Schalke during the weekend, Franz Beckenbauer said that the last few seasons have seen Bayern Munich on a gradual decline and the players do need to perform well against Schalke in order to arrest it. If Bayern Munich do not keep up with Dortmund this weekend, then it would be easy to write off the title for this season according to Franz Beckenbauer.

“The players must have it hammered home right now: do you want to be second-class internationals or become some of the greats? [Christian] Nerlinger, [Karl-Heinz] Rummenigge, [Uli] Hoeness and Heynckes must come together and make the seriousness of the situation clear to the players. The sporting responsibility belongs to Jupp Heynckes, but in him I have no doubt,” Beckenbauer said in the interview just ahead of the match. There have been calls to replace the manager Jupp Heynckes, but Bayern Munich have denied that they are looking at other options.