Sacha Boey could have left FC Bayern in the summer, but is now playing a role again—and making the most of the opportunity.
Every professional at FC Bayern is feeling relatively confident at the moment because every single one of them is needed right now. The squad has been deliberately kept smaller than in previous years, which makes it more difficult to compensate for potential absences but significantly intensifies competition.
“It’s not like those sitting on the bench are hoping that their competitors will play badly,” Joshua Kimmich assures us, and we can believe him, as he recently sat on the bench twice. “When you play yourself, you naturally try to play a little better than the others, but always in the interests of the team.” Because he finds it “special” to “be part of the team.”
After all, this team has set a club record and won the first ten competitive games of the season for the first time ever, scoring 38 goals and conceding only eight. And that with a constantly changing starting lineup.
In central midfield, where Kimmich normally plays, Tom Bischof and Leon Goretzka played against Bremen (4-0), for example, and a few days later, Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlovic played against Pafos in Cyprus (5-1). In Frankfurt, it was Kimmich and Goretzka again, while Pavlovic and Bischof came on as substitutes.
In defense, there are fewer options for rotation due to the numerous absences, which still include Josip Stanisic due to a medial ligament injury, but at least Min-Jae Kim has been able to play in central defense from time to time. At right-back, where Konrad Laimer has long been the first choice, Sacha Boey is needed because Laimer replaces Stanisic on the left.
And Boey, who had always been a weak link until recently, has performed so solidly in the recent past that hardly anyone has talked about him. Which is not a bad thing for a defender, after all, Boey had been receiving more negative than positive feedback until recently (and rightly so).
In the summer, the Frenchman was a candidate that Bayern would have let go if the right offer came along, as Max Eberl made no secret of on Saturday in Frankfurt. “We would have considered it if something had happened,” said the sporting director, which translates as: We would have been quite happy to sell him.
However, as the alternatives became fewer and fewer, Boey stayed and is now repaying the constant trust placed in him by coach Vincent Kompany. Starting with his substitution against Chelsea, through a promising start in Sinsheim, to his best performance so far in the 4-0 win against Bremen.
Boey has become more reliable and, in a sense, a symbol of the current Bayern team: don’t complain too much, just keep going. And then it will work out eventually. Even for someone who was worth €30 million a year and a half ago and played for a long time like someone for whom even €3 million would have been too much.