Effenberg told SPORT1’s Doppelpass that the Bayern leadership’s unease over Musiala’s contract extension is understandable, given how the 23-year-old’s chronic medical condition and injury record have piled up since he signed through 2030.

“I think the Bayern management is feeling a bit uneasy about Jamal Musiala’s contract extension. It’s nobody’s fault, neither the player’s nor the club’s,” Effenberg said on the show.

Hoeneß had set the debate in motion on BR’s Sonntags-Stammtisch, saying Bayern face a dilemma because Musiala “is suffering from an illness that cannot simply be cured, but it can be controlled to a certain extent with the use of medication,” and conceding the Germany international might never recover his previous level.

The remarks landed hard at Säbener Strasse because Musiala only extended his contract on 14 February 2025, running through 2030 on terms that made him one of the club’s top earners alongside Harry Kane. He has since suffered a fractured fibula and dislocated ankle at the 2025 Club World Cup, been publicly diagnosed with absence seizures, and on 24 September picked up a thigh injury that has kept him out of competitive football.

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Matthäus calls the framing misplaced

Matthäus, the 1990 Ballon d’Or winner and a former Germany captain, used his Sky column to reject Hoeneß’s approach.

“If someone else had made these statements, Hoeneß would probably have been the first to jump to his feet in protest,” Matthäus wrote for Sky.

He argued that Bayern agreed to both the salary and the length of the deal when it was signed, and urged Musiala to turn the criticism into motivation to come back stronger.

Legends split on the Kane comparison

Where Matthäus sees a club bound by the deal it chose to sign, Effenberg frames the open-ended injury picture as a reasonable source of boardroom unease, drawing a pointed contrast with Harry Kane. Kane’s extension through 2029, signed on 5 November after he won the 2026 Ballon d’Or, is a commitment Effenberg told Doppelpass nobody would question.

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Musiala returned to collective training on 5 November for the first time in five and a half weeks, but Bayern have not set a date for his competitive comeback. Their first Bundesliga fixture after the international break is at home to 1. FC Köln on 20 November.

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