Per information from both Sport1’s Florian Plettenberg and HLN’s Pieter-Jan Calcoen, negotiations between Bayern Munich and RSC Anderlecht for a loan deal for Joshua Zirkzee have picked up speed. It finally looks as if the striker is going to be leaving Bayern this summer on a loan that will not have a permanent buy option in the contract. He hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory during Bayern’s preseason preparations, but even if he had, it’s unclear just how much Julian Nagelsmann was planning on using him with Robert Lewandowski and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting also at his disposal.
Zirkzee was not in Bayern’s squad for the 3-0 friendly loss to SSC Napoli on Saturday as it’s presumed it was due to the negotiations with Anderlecht behind the scenes. Oliver Kahn had all but confirmed Zirkzee’s fate speaking ahead of the friendly kicking off. “We think about it, the player too – what is best for him,” Kahn had said when he was asked about Zirkzee’s future (FCBInside). Still, nothing has been officially confirmed by either club yet, despite all of the writing on the wall.
For Zirkzee, if and when a final agreement is reached between Bayern and Anderlecht, he’ll have to hope he fares far better than he did during his loan with Parma in Serie A. At Bayern, he was in a bit of a tricky spot having outgrown the reserves, but still finding chances in the first team hard to come by aside from his brief run of form in the winter of the 2019/2020 season under Hansi Flick. At Anderlecht, he’ll have decent opportunities in the first team and will also get to experience UEFA Conference League football, given that Anderlecht miss out on Champions and Europa League qualification.
It’s Bayern’s hope that they would be able to get a deal with Anderlecht finalized by this week, meaning that Nagelsmann will probably have to prepare for Bremer SV in the DFB-Pokal first round without him. Otherwise, if he was to stay, that match would be a perfect opportunity for him, especially since he hasn’t really made an impression on Nagelsmann thus far during the preseason friendlies.
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