Karl-Heinz Rummenigge talks Bayern Munich, Harry Kane and Pep Guardiola's influence on Vincent Kompany's arrival
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge knows better than most what it takes to make Bayern Munich successful. As a player and later as a senior executive, he has been central to the club’s history for decades. In this interview, he discusses the impact of Pep Guardiola, explains why Harry Kane has become such an important figure in Munich and pays tribute to Manuel Neuer’s revolutionary influence on goalkeeping.
Bundesliga:. I think everyone in the Bundesliga was delighted when Harry Kane won the Ballon d’Or in London. What, in your view, makes him objectively the best player in the world right now?
Rummenigge: "I think it’s the complete package: what we see on the pitch, but also what we see off it. Everyone knows what he does on the pitch. He scores plenty of goals, provides plenty of assists and, as we’ve seen recently, has even added something else to his game.
Watch: Rummenigge's Bundesliga Goal of the Year in 1980
"He has transformed his play a little by regularly dropping into midfield and playing those wonderful long passes to Michael Olise, Luis Díaz or whoever happens to be playing.
"That opens up the game and, above all, makes it quicker. And then he still manages to get back into the penalty area promptly and finish off chances or score goals himself. But there’s also the person behind the player. We often talk about role models in football and sport in general. If we’re honest, fewer and fewer sportspeople, including footballers, live up to that ideal because they simply don’t believe in being confined to a particular image.
"I think the way he lives his life, presents himself, expresses himself and conducts interviews is exemplary. He carries that onto the pitch, too. Although his primary responsibility as a striker is to score goals, you also occasionally see him tracking back and making a tackle near his own penalty area.
Watch: Kane's rise to Ballon d'Or winner
"I think that Sepp Herberger’s famous saying, ‘You should be 11 friends’ still applies to him. I believe he represents those values both externally and within the team. In my opinion, he’s also a thoroughly decent person."
Bundesliga: What does Kane's contract extension mean for the coming years?
Rummenigge: "It was really the logical next step. He's been here for three years, or three and a half years, and has enjoyed great success with the club. He came from a club in England that wasn't particularly known for winning lots of trophies. Unfortunately, he didn't win any there. Now he's here and, over the past few years, he's already won quite a lot, in my opinion.
Watch: Kane signs Bayern contract extension
"And then there's the personal highlight of winning the Ballon d'Or. His family is happy here, Bayern are happy with him and the fans are delighted. So it was a logical decision. The only thing that remained was to reach an agreement that also met his financial expectations. Jan Dreesen and his colleagues on the Bayern board did a very good job of achieving that.
"He has a very good relationship with the family, particularly with his father and brother, who handle his affairs. And he managed to get the contract over the line and extend it. That's important for us and for the Bundesliga, too, because football is a people business. Whether we're talking about Bayern, Dortmund, the national team or whoever, it's the players who are promoted and highlighted in the media and who ultimately provide the talking points."
Bundesliga: You touched earlier on Kane's almost complete transformation, from a traditional centre-forward into a genuine all-round attacking player. What exactly has Bayern done to help bring about that development?
Rummenigge: "I think, first of all, he joined a team with greater individual quality. When you have players such as Olise on the right, Díaz on the left and Jamal Musiala in the No.10 position, he suddenly had some of the best attacking players in Europe alongside him. That naturally gives you a boost in quality.
"One thing is absolutely clear: an individual player is important. We've seen that with (Diego) Maradona and Lionel Messi, particularly those two Argentinians. But even they couldn't win trophies entirely on their own. You need good team-mates, and he has those at Bayern Munich.
"On top of that, there's a very good coach with whom he gets on extremely well. He leads the entire group perfectly. He's very empathetic, but he's not afraid to be critical when necessary and, above all, he's authentic.
"Those are important qualities that Harry may have been looking for at Bayern, and has found here."
Bundesliga: How do you see Kane the family man settling into life in Munich?
Rummenigge: "I don't actually have that much contact with Harry, although I did have a role to play in making his move happen when he was signed. I knew Tottenham's CEO, Daniel Levy, very well at the time. I had dealt with him a great deal through my own experience.
"I then called Harry. If I remember correctly, he was on holiday in the Bahamas at the time. I called him, and, rather unusually, he always answered the phone. If he couldn't answer, he would call back immediately, sometimes just a minute later. I remember thinking that if you're a superstar and you behave like that... I've experienced some difficult periods in football, and you sometimes know what to expect.
"I hoped he would be different on the pitch from the way he was in his private life. But Harry was immediately likeable from the very first day, and we were all convinced at the club that he was the right successor to Robert Lewandowski, whom we had lost a year earlier."
Bundesliga: There has always been a culture of homegrown players at Bayern in every generation, from Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier and Franz Beckenbauer in the earlier years, to Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Müller and now Lennart Karl. How much confidence do you have in this generation's ability to follow in those admittedly very large footsteps?
Rummenigge: "Those are very big footsteps to follow, but they also provide enormous motivation. I know that from my own experience. When I arrived here at the age of 18, I was at the very bottom of the hierarchy, looking up at all the great figures above me. Franz was at the very top, with Gerd below him and Sepp below Gerd. And you want to reach that level.
"I was fortunate enough to play around 25 matches in my first season, but you still want to climb the ladder one step at a time. And that's the most important thing for these young players."
Watch: Lennart Karl's Bundesliga goals and assists
Bundesliga: Let’s turn to the Bundesliga. It’s been a very open title race this season and many fans would love to see a proper title battle again, with at least two teams involved. How do you assess the balance of power at the top of the Bundesliga this season?
Rummenigge: "First of all, Dortmund are doing well and deserve to be where they are. I think it’s better for Bayern Munich when we have competition. That has regularly helped us in the past. When we won the Champions League in 2013, both teams were in the final in London, and the same was true in 2020. Whenever we’ve had pressure from one or two, or even three, other clubs, it has helped us.
"At the moment, there seems to be just one team putting us under pressure. You have to prove yourself in the day-to-day business of the Bundesliga. That also helps you in the Champions League because you don’t underestimate anyone. You know you have to go at every game at full throttle and stay focused if you want to win and remain at the top of the table."
Watch: Highlights of the Matchday 8 Klassiker in Munich
Bundesliga: You will hopefully have Vincent Kompany back on the touchline in the coming weeks. You’ve seen many coaches at this club. What makes him so special, given his combination of experience as a player, a former captain and a coach, including abroad?
Rummenigge: "Yes, he is special. That’s true. Perhaps I should explain how he came to us in the first place. We’d already contacted a whole host of coaches before him. Some had turned us down, others couldn’t get out of their contracts, or whatever the reason might have been.
"I remember Max Eberl eventually mentioning Vincent Kompany’s name at an internal meeting. I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ He said, ‘Why?’ I replied, ‘He’s just been relegated from the Premier League.’ We’d never appointed a coach who had just been relegated, whether in the Bundesliga or anywhere else. We discussed for a long time whether we had the courage to take that step.
"In the end, Uli Hoeneß and I decided that I should call my friend Pep Guardiola. He’d had Kompany as a player and captain, and had also experienced him as a fellow coach in England. We thought we’d hear what Pep had to say before making our final decision. So I called him.
"We had a long conversation, lasting an hour and a half. Pep had nothing but praise for him. At some point, I asked him to give me an authentic, honest answer. He told me that he had a shortlist. Manchester City had asked him to put one together in case he ever decided to leave, and Vincent Kompany was one of the three candidates on the last shortlist he had drawn up.
"I then asked him one final question: ‘Do you believe he can coach Bayern Munich?’ He said, ‘One hundred per cent. Absolutely.’ I called Uli and Jan, and asked whether Max Eberl was available. I told them I’d spoken to Pep. I’d never heard him speak so highly of another person as he did of Vincent Kompany. From his point of view, there was absolutely nothing to stop us offering him a contract."
Watch: Kompany the perfect fit for Bayern
Bundesliga: Manuel Neuer is perhaps in his final season as a player. What, specifically, has he changed about goalkeeping, both at Bayern and beyond?
Rummenigge: "He changed everything. No one else had done what he did. Goalkeeping used to have very little to do with playing with your feet, or with football itself. In his first year with Pep Guardiola, he completely revolutionised the position.
"I remember him sometimes standing 40 or 50 metres outside his own goal. Then those long balls would come and he’d deal with them, sometimes with what I always call his ‘heel, toe, tip’ technique.
"The spectators would give him a standing ovation as he played the ball to a team-mate in the outfield with pinpoint precision. He revolutionised goalkeeping, and that’s how the position is interpreted today. I have to say that the origins of the modern goalkeeping game lie with Manuel.
Watch: What makes Neuer so good?
"And I don’t just say this with pride: I believe Bayern Munich should be proud that Manuel played here for all those years. I remember Heribert Bruchhagen, who was at Eintracht Frankfurt at the time, once telling me, ‘You really only need two players: Manuel Neuer from Schalke and Robert Lewandowski from Dortmund.’
"We were already in talks with both of them at the time, but naturally I couldn’t say that. Uli [Hoeneß] and I had already been in close contact with them about bringing them to Bayern. Fortunately, both deals went through.
"But I would say this: if I had to name the two or three most important transfers of my career at Bayern, Manuel would certainly be one of them, because he won us games we would never have won otherwise. He helped us win trophies. In Lisbon in 2020, against Paris Saint-Germain, he was like a god. I’ll never forget that.
"There’s another story, too, which is worth repeating because I don’t think many players would have acted as he did. We had a DFB Cup semi-final against Schalke, and our coach at the time, Louis van Gaal, made a comment that wasn’t particularly flattering. He said we didn’t really need Manuel Neuer. We had Thomas Kraft in goal, who was OK, but Manuel Neuer was already on a completely different level.
"Our ultras in the Südkurve put up their banners and there were verbal insults and so on. I remember Uli and I sitting together, absolutely furious. We lost the first leg, and Manuel Neuer had played like a god. Unfortunately, he was still on the wrong side at Schalke at the time.
"After the game, I went down to the dressing room area. I bumped into Horst Heldt, who was Schalke’s sporting director at the time. I asked him, ‘Horst, could I have a quick word with Manuel?’ We were already quite far along in our discussions with Schalke about bringing him to Bayern. He said yes.
"Manuel came out wearing nothing but a towel, and I told him, ‘Manuel, I want to apologise unreservedly for what happened. It was disgraceful, and we won’t simply carry on as if nothing had happened.’
"He replied as though nothing had happened and asked me just one question: ‘Are you and Mr Hoeneß in favour of me coming?’ I said, ‘Of course. We’ll do everything we can to bring you here. You’re the most important signing we could make.’ He said, ‘Then I’ll come.’
"I remember thinking that, after everything he’d been through, he still stood by us. I’ll never forget that. And now, even though he’s unfortunately injured again, I won’t forget certain things in my life. One of them is that this player has always been worth his weight in gold to Bayern Munich.
"What’s happening now is partly down to his age. But Manuel Neuer, despite Oliver Kahn, despite Sepp Maier and all the other great goalkeepers we’ve had, was the best goalkeeper we’ve ever had here."
