At different stages last season for Bayern Munich when Thomas Tuchel was still manager, Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah was one of the club’s top transfer targets. Even with Vincent Kompany taking over for Tuchel, and the club knowing Tuchel would be leaving at the end of the season months before it actually ended, the towering center back was still on the radar for the summer transfer window.
Negotiations between Bayern, Tah and Leverkusen never reached an advanced enough stage, though, and Die Werkself sporting director Fernando Carro’s negative comments about Max Eberl did not help make business between the two clubs any easier. As things stand, Tah still has a contract with Leverkusen that runs through June 2025, meaning he could theoretically leave the club on a free transfer in the summer and agree to join a club as early as next month. Even if Bayern still want to get him, though, they face stiff competition.
Per information from transfer expert Fabrizio Romano (via @iMiaSanMia), Barcelona currently leads the race to sign Tah this coming summer. The heavy interest and proactive movements from the Catalan club having already met with the player’s agent will not deter Bayern from continuing efforts of their own, but Hansi Flick’s side are growing in optimism that they will be able to beat Bayern to the punch with Tah.
UEFA Champions League - “Bayer 04 Leverkusen v FC Barcelona”
Flick was dealt an unlucky blow with the injury to veteran center back Ronald Araujo, so the club is certainly in the market for a quality center back for next season. He has been forced to use young defenders at the heart of his defense for most of this season, which has not stopped Barcelona from succeeding both domestically and in Europe.
For Bayern, they wound up signing Hiroki Ito from VfB Stuttgart last summer and the Japanese defender has spent all of this season out injured. To add to that, center back Eric Dier will likely be on his way out of the club this summer on the heels of Bayern losing both Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt to Manchester United last summer. The Rekordmeister could still definitely use someone like Tah to add to the ranks.