Thomas Muller opens up on ‘insane offer’ to leave Bayern Munich for Man Utd

Manchester United were close to signing Thomas Muller before Bayern Munich rejected the Red Devils’ approach for the German attacker, who has scored over 200 goals in his career

Thomas Muller has revealed Bayern Munich turned down an “insane offer” from Manchester United for the midfielder as he opened up about how he almost quit the German giants.

The 32-year-old recently signed a new contract with Bayern that will keep him at the club until the summer of 2024. He went through FCB’s academy before making his first-team debut in 2008.

Muller has since become one of the club’s greatest players and has now won 27 major trophies for club and country – the most of any Germany international after beating the previous record held by Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Things could have turned out differently had Müller and Bayern accepted an offer from United and Louis Van Gaal. The Red Devils called when the Dutchman wanted to strengthen his squad and wanted to bring Müller, who had just won the world championship with Germany, into the team.

However, FC Bayern rejected the offer and Müller ended up staying in the Bundesliga. “Bayern clearly rejected the whole thing – despite this insane offer from United.” Müller said Mercury. [But it was a] big vote of confidence from Bayern.”

Van Gaal worked with Muller during his time at Bayern Munich between 2009 and 2011 and wanted to reunite the midfielder during his time with the Red Devils. But the Netherlands manager only lasted two seasons at United before being replaced by now-Roma coach Jose Mourinho.

Is Thomas Müller retiring at Bayern Munich? Let us know in the comments below!

Müller would also have joined Hoffenheim almost at the start of his professional career as he tried to gain a foothold at Bayern. He added: “It was relatively close back then. [Bayern Munich II boss] Hermann Gerland fought back with all his might and prevented the transfer.

The attacker has regained his form in recent seasons after enduring a difficult period which saw him reportedly fall out of favor with Niko Kovac. He then stopped playing along as much and was often left out.

“Since I didn’t get the playing time that I would have liked during this phase, I sought to talk to the club about all the options,” revealed Müller.