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Football

15th Jun 2019

Bayern Munich, in their kindness, are letting Mats Hummels go back to Dortmund

Wayne Farry

What a nice bunch they are at the Allianz Arena

Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga once again last season despite taking a big long nap for the first half of the season. Rivals Borussia Dortmund looked to have run away with the league title at the halfway point, only to remember that Bayern are Bayern and collapsing under the weight of their rivals’ reputation.

The season is over now though, and Bayern – in their kindness – are willing to offer an olive branch to Dortmund in the form of a transfer offer. Yes, that’s right, Bayern are willing to allow Mats Hummels to head back to the Westfalenstadion.

I mean, how nice is that?

What other club would sign your best defender in his prime, win the league title during each of his seasons with them, and then sell him back to you when he’s past his peak for roughly the same amount you sold him for?

Only the good folks at the Allianz Arena, that’s who.

“We can confirm the information.” wrote Sky Sports journalist Torben Hoffmann on Twitter. “Mats Hummels is close to a return to BVB. Negotiations are very far advanced. Nothing has been signed yet.”

Hummels joined Bayern in 2016 after seven seasons with Dortmund, returning to the club where he spent the totality of his youth football career.

Should he resign with Dortmund, it will represent a strong and encouraging start to the transfer window for Lucien Favre’s side, who have signed Julian Brandt, Thorgan Hazard and Nico Schulz already this summer, as well as securing the permanent transfer of last season’s highly successful loan signing Paco Alcácer.

The 30-year-old is not the player he was when he departed for Bayern three years ago, but his experience and composure will be an invaluable asset in a defence containing two talented but inexperienced centre-backs in the form of Manuel Akanji and Dan-Axel Zagadou.