Bayern Munich are already fighting to stop their treble-winning squad breaking up in the wake of their Champions League triumph despite sweeping all before them in Europe this season.
The German giants partied through the night in Lisbon after Kingsley Coman’s second-half header – Bayern’s 500th Champions League goal – sealed a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in Sunday’s hotly-contested final.
“The best team in Europe wears red,” boasted Munich-based newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on its Monday front page, yet Bayern are already in danger of losing some stars.
Both central midfielder Thiago Alcantara, 29, who has made it clear he wants a fresh challenge and has been linked to Liverpool, and centre-back David Alaba, 28, have stalled over extension talks with a year left on their contracts.
“I don’t know,” admitted head coach Hansi Flick when asked if Alcantara had played his last Bayern game.
“He doesn’t know himself because all the concentration has been 100 per cent on the Champions League final.”
Flick expects to know more in the “next few days” while board member Oliver Kahn is “very, very” optimistic of keeping hold of Alaba, the only Bayern academy product in the first team.
Alaba, one of the first to console PSG’s weeping star Neymar after the final whistle, has been linked to Manchester City.
One Bayern star has already left with Brazil playmaker Philippe Coutinho heading back to Barcelona after a year-long loan deal.
“I will work to make sure that the things that haven’t happened so far will happen for me next season,” vowed Coutinho, now seeking to reboot his career in a Barcelona side rebuilding after the 8-2 thrashing by Bayern in the quarterfinals.
Bayern became the first club to win all 11 matches in the course of their Champions League campaign, scoring 43 goals, a tally second only to Barcelona’s record haul of 45 in 1999/00.
Under Flick, Bayern finished the season with a 21-game winning streak to sweep the treble of an eighth straight Bundesliga title, also lifting both the Champions League and German Cup trophies.
In his first role in charge of a Bundesliga club, Flick is the only coach to win his opening eight Champions League games.
