Following up on some ‘Bayern and Ruud‘ rumours, I dug up the source and found out something interesting:

Bayern have verbally agreed terms with Ruud van Nistelrooy and have already made a bid to Manchester United for 13 million euros (9 million pounds) – lower than the 14 mil euros (10 mil pounds) bid made by Real Madrid and rejected by United several days ago.

What’s more – this is old news – The news of Bayern’s bid came out a day after Manchester United rejected Madrid’s offer.

For starters, here are the two Bild articles:

Rumminegge’s Interview with Bild (the source of today’s news): (Google Translated – English) – (Original Version – German)

July 19th article confirming what Bayern had bid for Ruud: (Google Translated – English) – (Original Version – German)

Now I can’t read German and the translations are pretty poor, but what I can make out from the articles is this:

Ruud van Nistelrooy has told Bayern Munich that he would like to play with them next season. They have already discussed financial terms and apparently Bayern’s wage offers match whatever Ruud fancies. Ruud has done the same with Real Madrid, and all these ‘agreements’ happened right after the World Cup, and happened pretty quickly as well.

The stumbling block appears to be Manchester United’s transfer fee demands. The second article says that United have asked for 18 mil euros (~ 12.3 mil pounds), while Real Madrid offered 14 mil euros (~ 9.6 mil pounds) and Bayern Munich offered 13 mil euros (~ 8.9 mil pounds). These numbers seem a bit dodgy as previous rumours have stated that United are looking for 15 mil pounds, not 12.5 mil. Still, the bid numbers sound ok and consistent with the news we’ve heard so far.

Bayern are bidding less than Real Madrid and are not likely to pay more, according to Rumminegge (Bayern Munich’s general director).

The interview that BBC Sport is quoting is actually about Podolski and what impact he will have at Bayern Munich.

No swap deal for Owen Hargreaves and Ruud van Nistelrooy has been discussed. Bild newspaper says that Hargreaves could cost upto 30 mil euros (20.5 mil pounds), but I would expect a pricetag around 15 mil pounds.

The most interesting things in these articles were the supposed price-tag of Owen Hargreaves and the bid amounts for Ruud – it’s sad to see how a few bad months have meant that a 15-20 mil striker is now being chased after by big clubs who are only willing to pay 9-10 mil.