Munich, Germany: Bayern Munich will not activate a 120-million-euro ($130 million) option to buy on-loan Brazilian star Philippe Coutinho from Barcelona, the German champions’ chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told Der Spiegel magazine on Friday.
The option expired and “we haven’t activated it,” said Rummenigge.
“Now we’re going to draw up squad planning internally (for next season) and we’ll see if he still has a role to play with us or not.”
Coutinho joined Bayern last August but has failed to shine on a consistent basis.
He featured in 23 of 25 league games before the season was halted in March due to the coronavirus but started just 15 times.
Coutinho, who has eight goals and six assists to his name, sat out last weekend’s resumption of the season having undergone ankle surgery in April.
Bayern host Eintracht Frankfurt
Bayern will host Eintracht Frankfurt in their first home game after the coronavirus break on Saturday.
This will be the first competitive game without spectators at the Allianz Arena. After Bayern’s successful restart at Union Berlin, the German champions want take the next step towards defending their title.
“The duel against Frankfurt marks the beginning of a very important week. FCB want to carry momentum forward to the top clash next Tuesday (18:30 CEST) at Borussia Dortmund,” the club said on its webste.
On Sunday, FCB won 2-0 at Union Berlin after the ten-week Bundesliga break. This enabled the men from Munich to maintain their position at the top of the table.
The lead over second-placed Borussia Dortmund is four points with eight games to go in the season. The win in Berlin was the Reds’ fifth Bundesliga victory in a row. FCB are now unbeaten in twelve in the league .
