Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says the club will not exercise the option to buy on-loan midfielder James Rodriguez only to sell him immediately this summer, calling a potential buy-to-sell move a “human trafficking” transfer.
James has been on loan from Real Madrid for the last two seasons, with the agreement between the two clubs containing an option for Bayern to make the transfer a permanent one for £37million.
The Colombian has largely been a success at Bayern but there are questions about how he fits in new manager Niko Kovac’s system, with starting XI appearances becoming less frequent since the departures of Carlo Ancelotti and then Jupp Heynckes, the first two managers James had at Bayern.
There were suggestions that given his clashes with Kovac, Bayern could trigger the option and then sell him on for a profit – similar to what Bundesliga rivals Eintracht Frankfurt are likely to do this summer with striker Luka Jovic, who shined on loan from Benfica, prompting the Frankfurt club to activate a £5.3million right-to-buy option last month with rumours swirling that the 21-year-old will move on to the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Chelsea for a fee that could be more than 10 times what Eintracht paid to sign the Serbian.
But Rummenigge has categorically ruled out the possibility of Bayern going down the same path with James, who is set to return to Madrid in June when his loan expires.
“That’s not the style of Bayern,” the German executive told AS. “We don’t want to do human trafficking, to push something elsewhere to make some money.
“FC Bayern has never been that way. We will surely come together next week and we will decide what to do.
“We must put all options on the table and decide how to handle all those things that aren’t certain yet.
“We must make exclamation marks out of the question marks.”
