Where most read Uli Hoeneß’s weekend remarks on Jamal Musiala as despair spilling into public, Lothar Matthäus sees a Bayern honorary president picking his target on purpose.
Speaking on Sky90, the former Germany international told viewers Hoeneß was not lashing out at the 23-year-old playmaker but trying to light a fire under him.
“Uli is taking a little dig at him and trying to get under his skin a bit,” Matthäus said, as reported by Bulinews.
“It’s part of the process not just to wrap him in cotton wool, but also to let him face a bit of adversity.”
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Matthäus argued Hoeneß had chosen his words to provoke a response from a player working his way back from a torn muscle fibre on top of the neurological condition the club disclosed in the summer. He told Bulinews that if he were in Musiala’s position, that kind of nudge from the honorary president would be all the motivation he needed to prove himself.
What Hoeneß actually said
The honorary president’s remarks landed on Sunday on BR’s Sonntags-Stammtisch, when he was asked how Bayern reconcile their support for Musiala with the club’s financial interests. He did not soften it, telling the show Bayern were in a bind.
“We are in a dilemma. He has an illness that cannot easily be cured, but can be managed reasonably well with medication. But whether he will ever again have the level of performance he once had …”
Hoeneß then turned to the contract. Musiala is tied to the Allianz Arena until 2030 and sits among Bayern’s top earners.
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“But he is still getting paid. Just imagine if Bayern Munich were now to call his contract into question,” Hoeneß added on the same programme.
An injury timeline that does not add up
The second strand of Matthäus’s intervention is more delicate.
He questioned whether the public line on Musiala’s physical setback matches reality, suggesting a torn muscle fibre alone does not keep a player out for close to seven weeks.
Musiala has been sidelined since late September after repeated setbacks following a Club World Cup injury in the summer of 2025. By Matthäus’s reading, the length of the absence points to something the club has not fully spelled out.
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Effenberg joins in
Stefan Effenberg, another former Bayern captain, used SPORT1’s Doppelpass on the same day to echo parts of Hoeneß’s reasoning. He told the show the people running Bayern were probably uneasy about the extension handed to Musiala in 2025, holding it up against Harry Kane’s deal running until 2029.
“Everyone would sign off on the Harry Kane contract as right and understandable. I think the Bayern decision-makers are much more uncomfortable with the Jamal Musiala contract extension.”
Effenberg pointed to both the illness and Musiala’s wider injury history as the reason.
Musiala is expected back after the current international break, with Bayern’s home fixture against 1. FC Köln on 21 November floated as a possible return date.
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