Skip to main content

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge reveals Pep Guardiola's plan to play Manuel Neuer in midfield

Manuel Neuer

Bayern Munich's chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has revealed that Pep Guardiola once considered playing Manuel Neuer in midfield.

Guardiola enjoyed a successful three-year spell in charge of Bayern between 2013 and 2016, during which time he won three Bundesliga titles and two DFB-Pokals.

The Bavarians' dominance of German football was such that they won the league by margins of 19, 10 and 10 points in Guardiola's three campaigns at the helm.

Guardiola moved Philipp Lahm from right-back to central midfield, and once experimented with Javi Martinez as a "false No.10".

And according to Rummenigge, Guardiola was keen to test Neuer in an outfield role once the league title had been sewn up.

“Manuel invented the art of being a footballer as a goalkeeper and revolutionised this position," Rummenigge told Bayern's official magazine.

“I still remember how Pep Guardiola, after winning a championship, seriously came up with the idea of ​​putting him in midfield for a game.”

Guardiola recently hinted that he may choose Ederson as Manchester City's first-choice penalty taker, with Ilkay Gundogan the latest outfielder to fail to convert from 12 yards.

Tottenham still have a long way to go under Jose Mourinho – but the win over Manchester City showed a team with an agenda

Liverpool's FA Cup replay against Shrewsbury should have been seen as an opportunity, not a nuisance

FA Cup replays have become an easy target – but scrapping them would be a big mistake

Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).