Is buying Désiré Doué truly the best path forward for Bayern Munich?

Bayern Munich are in a bidding war with PSG for Stade Rennais talent Désiré Doué. But rather than signing the French prodigy, would Bayern be better off investing in their own talent instead?

Stade Rennais must love what is happening to their prized asset, Désiré Doué. While the 19-year-old celebrated a 3-0 win with France over the United States at the Olympic football tournament, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich remained in a bidding war for the attacking midfielder.

With Bayern Munich seemingly out of the race to sign Xavi Simons, Doué is now the prime target for director of sport Max Eberl and sporting director Christoph Freund. As a result, Bayern made a bid in the region of €55m plus bonuses. That bid was then quickly countered by PSG’s €60m offer, which, according to French media, meets Rennes’ demands.

Doué remains open to either project. After all, both Bayern and PSG are enticing. At Bayern, Doué could play with his Olympic teammate Michael Olise and several other French players. At PSG, Doué could step into the void left by Kylian Mbappé.

The entire process, however, begs some critical questions. First and foremost, is Doué worth the €60m transfer fee? Off the pitch, we argued last week that Bayern might have to make significant investments in new players who will mark a big upfront transfer fee but will be on a smaller salary than some of the established stars in the squad.

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That argument is sensible in theory. After all, Doué alongside Xavi Simons, who, according to sources, is leaning towards staying at Leipzig, would be on a much smaller salary than Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry, and Leroy Sané. The caveat is that Uli Hoeneß made this quite clear this week: Bayern would have to attempt to sell some assets before bringing in multiple new players.