Football: “The player himself becomes a national player, not because of his advisor”

Christian Nerlinger used to be at FC Bayern himself, but today he advises professionals. A conversation about the supposed power of advisors, why he likes 1860 and what he wishes for his three football-playing sons.

Christian Nerlinger, 49, only smiles briefly when he looks at the wall of his office. The Monaco-Franze quote hangs there: “A bissl what’s up oiwei.” Then he gets serious, because it quickly becomes clear: If an advisor who has been with Nerlinger for a few years and advises goalkeeper Oliver Baumann or Sebastian Rudy from the Bundesliga club TSG Hoffenheim says something like that, it can quickly be misunderstood as: It’s about player contracts maybe still a little something. The former national player and Bayern manager had reported himself, also in order to differentiate himself from the colleagues who are damaging the reputation of his industry as much as possible.