Bayern Munich chief fires new Liverpool dig and it is not about Florian Wirtz
The Bayern Munich chief has compared the fees paid for Alexander Isak and Harry Kane respectively.
Bayern Munich chief Uli Hoeness has suggested that the German club underpaid for Harry Kane given the fee that Liverpool splashed out on Alexander Isak.
The Bundesliga club spent £87 million to prise Kane from Tottenham Hotspur in 2023. England’s all-time top scorer has been imperious for Bayern in front of goal, scoring 133 times in 136 appearances. Kane is on track to help Vincent Kompany’s side claim back-to-back German titles.
Bayern reckon that Kane’s price tag equates closer to £125 million. But Hoeness claimed that given Liverpool paid a British record fee of £125 million for Isak from Newcastle United last summer, Kane is worth almost double.
"It was a bit of a risk [spending €100m on him in 2023]," Hoeness told Kicker, via iMiaSanMia. "But he's played incredibly well for us in recent years. If we consider the price-performance ratio, I'd say €150m. But then you see that Alexander Isak of Liverpool cost €150m. If he's worth €150m, then Harry is worth €250m."
Isak joined Liverpool against the backdrop of bagging 27 goals for Newcastle in the 2024-25 seasons. One of his efforts was against the Reds in the Carabao Cup final, which ended the Magpies’ 70-year wait for a trophy.
Isak has endured a frustrating maiden campaign at Anfield. He arrived short of fitness after training away from Newcastle’s squad for much of pre-season. He struggled to build momentum and then suffered a broken leg when scoring in a 2-1 win at Tottenham in December.
Isak has been on the road to recovery for the past three months. He is coming towards the end of his rehabilitation but head coach Arne Slot has warned the Sweden international will take time to build full fitness.
“The question is what you mean by ‘ready’. If you want to have the player who played exactly a year ago against us in the Carabao Cup final, and was too good for us on that day, then I would tell you I have my doubts about that after months out. But I expect I can use him for minutes.
“Exactly what I get from that I cannot tell you because he hasn’t trained with the team even once. You don’t after one training session play 45 minutes or 90 minutes. If we wanted to arrange a game it would have to be three-v-three because we only have Federico [Chiesa], Curtis [Jones] and Joe [Gomez] available [the rest of the first-team squad are in recovery after Galatasaray]. We have the under-21s team but Alex is not yet ready to play in the international break. If he would have been, he would have been with Sweden.”