German daily Bild reports that former Bayern Munich President Uli Hoeness, who is currently in prison in Germany for tax evasion, warned his former club against signing BorussiaDortmund star Marco Reus because the German champ runs the risk of destroying the Bundesliga’s competitiveness. According to the report, Hoeness, during day-leave from Landsberg prison,told Bayern’s honorary president Franz Beckenbauer, CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Schalke CEO Clemens Tonnies that the club should not move for the BVB star, as has beenwidely reported. “Consider it carefully. Do you really want to win the title by Christmas?” Bild quotes Hoeness as saying.
Following back-to-back championships for Dortmund in 2011 and2012, Bayern romped to the Bundesliga title the past two seasons, sealing victory by April in 2013 and then March earlier this year. The Bavarian giant also acquired two of the BVB’s bestplayers of the 2011 and 2012 campaigns in Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski. With a reported release clause of 25 million euros, Reus would become the third Dortmund-to-Bayerncrossover.
Though Reus is said to be in contract talks with his current club, ESPN reports that the talks are now on hold given Dortmund’s current crisis of form, which has seen the clubfall to 15th-place in the table, just one point above the relegation zone. Just nine games into the season, Dortmund finds itself 14 points adrift of leader Bayern when the two rivals square off onSaturday for Der Klassiker, Germany’s version of El Clasico, at the Allianz Arena.