Lothar Matthäus does not want Bayern Munich to punish Michael Olise for his red card in Stavanger. He wants them to extend his contract, raise his salary into the top bracket of European football, and quietly thank Manuel Neuer for making the maths work.

“A Diego Maradona couldn’t be stopped by fair means either,” Matthäus told reporters at an Interwetten sponsor event, in comments carried by Goal.

Olise was sent off on 13 October in Bayern’s 3-3 Champions League draw at Viking FK, picking up two yellow cards inside a minute after throwing the ball at Viking captain Zlatko Tripic. The sending-off left Bayern a man down for the final stages, and Herman Haugen equalised in the 90th minute.

No fine, Arsenal is the fine

The Frenchman then missed Bayern’s next Champions League tie, at home to Arsenal, through suspension. For Matthäus, that was punishment enough.

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“Why would I think about fining Olise, as it has been suggested? His biggest punishment is that he won’t be allowed to play against Arsenal,” he said, in quotes relayed by SB Nation.

Matthäus argued that Olise’s behaviour before the dismissal had actually been exemplary, noting the winger had absorbed several heavy challenges in Bayern’s previous Bundesliga match without complaint, and that the lesson from Stavanger was already learned.

The Neuer accounting

The core of Matthäus’s case is financial. Olise is under contract until 2029 on wages that the German press has put at roughly €13.5 million a year, well below the elite tier at the Allianz Arena. Matthäus proposes adding two or three years to the deal and sharply increasing the pay.

He argues Bayern can afford it without touching their current wage structure. Neuer’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season; by Matthäus’s reckoning, that frees up about €20 million in annual salary. Give half of it to Olise, he said, and Bayern still save €10 million a year.

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The market valuation he put on the winger was bolder still. “If you adjusted his salary to his market value, he would now have to earn 45, 46, 47 million!” he told the Interwetten event, as reported by Goal. The former Bayern captain’s logic: the longer the deal, the stronger Bayern’s hand if a transfer offer eventually arrives.

Real Madrid are already watching

Bayern have their own plan in motion. The club is prepared to raise Olise’s wages to around €25 million a year on a deal running to 2031, according to earlier reporting on the extension package.

The urgency comes from outside Munich. Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain have been linked with the reigning Bundesliga player of the season, who delivered 22 goals and 31 assists in 52 appearances across the 2025/26 campaign. Bayern have publicly stated they have no intention of selling.

The one party who has not moved is Olise himself, who has so far shown no appetite for opening talks on a new contract.

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