Pep Guardiola: Bayern Munich broke promise to keep Toni Kroos
In a biography of Pep Guardiola that is yet to be released, he claims that Toni Kroos was sold by Bayern Munich against his wishes.
The German World Cup winner joined Real Madrid this summer for an fee in the region of £20m on a six-year deal.
Guardiola’s conditions when he joined Bayern
The biography Herr Guardiola, written by a Spanish journalist Marti Perarnau, claims that one of the conditions when Guardiola joined Bayern Munich was that Kroos would never be put up for sale “under any circumstances”.
Guardiola saw Kroos as an important part of his plans to build the team, although he was used on a rotational basis with Thiago Alcantara last season which led to him being dissatisfied and demanding higher wages.
The Kroos transfer saga
There was plenty of transfer speculation in the media after Kroos had a touchline argument with Guardiola. There were various reports of Kroos being a target for both Premier League and La Liga clubs while he held the board hostage with his new demands.
Both Guardiola and Bayern’s Director of Sport Matthias Sammer wanted to keep him at the club. Guardiola even said in April that Kroos was a ‘great guy’ and that he really wanted to ‘hold on to him’. Kroos also revealed that he had no problems working with the Spanish boss.
But the board were more than happy to make a profit on the midfielder and sold him to the Champions League winners.
Bayern midfield hit by injuries
With the 2014-15 season already underway, the Bundesliga champions are already short of players in midfield.
Both Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thiago Alcantara are injured and are set to miss a major part of the early season.
With revelations about the ‘broken promise’ coming to the forefront, only time will tell if Bayern Munich made the wrong decision to sell one of Germany’s brightest talents to their European rivals.