Christoph Freund on his all-time favourite Bayern players: “There have been many great players at FC Bayern. But for me the three all-time legends: Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and from Austria David Alaba. I think all three left a big mark on FC Bayern” [FCBtv]
Freund on his relationship with Thomas Tuchel: “Thomas and I speak daily - and it’s a great pleasure to exchange ideas with him, to discuss football and other stuff. He’s a really good coach but also a great person whom I enjoy spending time with. We have a very good relationship, it’s important to always have a good exchange”
Freund on the best player he worked with: “Tough question. There are many players who I’ve got to work with and who had really good careers. But probably the most spectacular player is Erling Haaland. He joined us as a very young player in Salzburg. But also Naby Keïta, Sadio Mané, Dayot Upamecano. We brought them very young to Salzburg and all have developed immensely. Konrad Laimer played with us at the academy in Salzburg and was a very good guy. I could name many players. I enjoy working with young footballers and seeing how they develop and celebrate success together”
Freund on his plans for the Campus: "FC Bayern is equipped with a really good campus with a very good staff. There’s a really good energy over there. I just want to intensify the interlocking and dialogue between Säbener Straße and the Campus. It’s important for the future that we discover lots of young players and then nurture and push these talents and work well with them. I’m sure that in the future we’ll be able to develop many of the players we bring to the Campus into really good pros, and in best case scenario, into FC Bayern players "
Freund on whether he uses social media platforms to contact players: “I don’t. I don’t even have social media accounts. But of course our scouting team uses social media to get information on how players behave off the pitch. But generally getting players’ attention is not something that happens on social media”
Freund on whether he plays Football Manager to help with data and statistics: “I don’t play Football Manager. I play real-life Football Manager. I think it’s a really cool game. My boys play it at home so I know a bit about it. But I already have enough to do with collecting stats and facts in football and processing them. So for me a lot plays out in real life”
Do you get tips from your boys every now and then?
Freund: “Yes of course. We regularly discuss it at home and go deep into games”
For the winter transfer window: With your large network, might FC Bayern have players on their radar who we’re maybe not expecting because they’re unknown?
Freund: “We’ll see what transfer business we do in the next transfer windows. It’s obviously a bit different when you’re bringing in players to FC Bayern, one of the biggest clubs in the world, to how it was with me (in Salzburg) where we pretty much only scouted young talents. That said, we certainly want to bring a few lesser-known names to FC Bayern in the coming months and years and develop them into top players. That’s an objective for me and for the club.”
Freund: “There are always many transfers rumours. The whole sport and business also lives off that. We’ll see what we ultimately will do and what’s best for FC Bayern. We’re currently in lots of talks but I can’t say anything concrete yet. I don’t want to go into individual names either. But I can promise you that we’re working on it with great urgency, and that we’ll have a very good transfer window, bring some good players to our club and then attack again in spring”