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From the perspective of wanting high drama down to the wire, the final matchday of the Bundesliga delivered up until the final whistle. Bayern Munich defied the odds and lifted their eleventh consecutive Meisterschale by virtue of a 2-1 win at FC Koln while Borussia Dortmund failed to do the only thing they had to do to be crowned champions, which was to beat FSV Mainz.
Dortmund came back from two goals down, but drew 2-2, giving the title to Bayern, all thanks to Jamal Musiala’s late, late winner at the RheinEnergieStadion after coming on as a substitute in what was Thomas Tuchel’s attacking role of the dice to find a winner.
With the jubilation and pure ecstasy that followed Bayern’s exuberating title win, it was ever so slightly subdued with the news that the club had officially made the decision to relieve both Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic of their duties. Kahn had even confirmed in a social media statement after the win that he was not allowed to attend the match, while Brazzo was. He had said he was “forbidden” from attending the match even though he wanted to be there to celebrate the title with the players and staff members.
It was known that the pair of front office members were on the verge of potentially losing their jobs, but nothing was supposed to be made official until their meeting with the club’s supervisory board. The news came prematurely, and rumors were circulating before the final whistle had even gone. The club has also confirmed that Jan-Christian Dreesen will take over as the club’s CEO for now.
At the team’s title celebration in Marienplatz, Joshua Kimmich said he wasn’t exactly thrilled by the club’s timing of making the Kahn and Brazzo announcements. “Regardless of what you think about it, the club could have waited 2-3 days to announce it. When you secure the title and then news like that reaches you, you are in an emotional,” Kimmich said of the situation (via @iMiaSanMia). Thomas Muller had also expressed an element of shock and surprise when he was notified of the club’s decision shortly after the Dortmund-Mainz match had finished and officially sealed the deal for Bayern. “Is this coming now? A minute after the final whistle? I didn’t know anything about it until now,” he had said.
There doesn’t seem to be an apparent reason as to why the club chose to have their decision made clear before the final match was even over despite the fact it was known that either one of them, or both, would be losing their jobs. Collectively, it still was not a great season by Bayern’s standards, so the changes did need to be made, but there could’ve at least been some buffer time for both Kahn and Brazzo to celebrate that title, or at the very least, have one more match with the players in the event that Dortmund had taken care of business and won their first Bundesliga title since 2012.
Can’t get enough analysis of this insane sequence of events at Bayern Munich? Well, then check out our latest podcast episode! In this special recording session we talk about Bayerns shaky performance vs Koln, the ruthless sacking of Oliver Kahn and Brazzo, concerns about entering the summer without a sporting director, the drama surrounding everything, and implications for player contracts like Davies and Musiala. Listen to it below or on Spotify.
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