{"id":1083784,"date":"2019-04-14T14:57:09","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T13:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1083784"},"modified":"2019-04-14T14:57:09","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T13:57:09","slug":"mertesacker-grandmother-block-bayern-move","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/mertesacker-grandmother-block-bayern-move\/","title":{"rendered":"How ex-Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker’s grandmother blocked Bayern move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has revealed his grandmother’s opinion prevented him from joining Bayern Munich as a youngster.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mertesacker attracted interest from Bayern, Hamburg and Werder Bremen in the summer of 2006 after a string of impressive performances at centre-back for Hannover in the Bundesliga.<\/p>\n

The giant German, who is now the manager of Arsenal’s academy, eventually opted for Bremen – where he spent five seasons – before joining the Gunners in 2011.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7227287-barcelona-will-rely-on-their-jon-snow-to-deal-with-any-man-utd-counter-attack<\/p>\n

Speaking to Bild<\/a>, Mertesacker revealed it was a piece of advice from his grandmother that made him think twice about signing for Bayern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I played for Hannover I had several offers, also \u2013 as I have been told \u2013 from Hamburg, Bremen and Bayern,”\u00a0Mertesacker said, as relayed by Goal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then I already was a German international and Bayern would have loved to have the complete German national team.<\/p>\n

\n

But maybe I didn’t make the move because my granny said: \u2018Bayern doesn’t work at all\u2019.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBut Bremen with [Tim] Borowski, [Torsten] Frings, [Miroslav] Klose and [Frank] Baumann also had some German internationals, which was more attractive for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still lived at home with my parents at 20\/21 so the family was still close and I preferred that. And back then Bremen had the reputation for helping young players make their next step!<\/p>\n

\u201cBut maybe I didn’t make the move because my granny said: \u2018Bayern doesn’t work at all\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn’t like Bayern and died before I made a move. I guess she would have turned in her grave and said: \u2018Not with me!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ljBmUtfuAX4<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 34-year-old made 215 appearances for Bremen and played regularly for the German national team before Arsenal acquired his services.<\/p>\n

Following a long struggle with injuries, Mertesacker retired at the end of last season to take up his current role overseeing the Gunners’ academy.<\/p>\n

He played 221 games for Arsenal and won three FA Cups with the club, but the highlight of his career was undoubtedly lifting the World Cup with Germany in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has revealed his grandmother’s opinion prevented him from joining Bayern Munich as a youngster. Mertesacker attracted interest from Bayern, Hamburg and Werder Bremen in the summer of 2006 after a string of impressive performances at centre-back for Hannover in the Bundesliga. The giant German, who is now the manager of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278,"featured_media":1083787,"parent":0,"menu_order":7289,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Per Mertesacker reveals his grandmother blocked Bayern Munich move","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Former Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has revealed how a piece of family advice prevented him from joining Bayern Munich.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1083784","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"\nPer Mertesacker reveals his grandmother blocked Bayern Munich move<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has revealed how a piece of family advice prevented him from joining Bayern Munich.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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