In great financial difficulty and falling into the fourth division, Bordeaux has only one real hope to get out of it, the buyout of the club. Oliver Kahn’s project is taking shape.
Victorious 2-1 at Granville this Saturday, January 11, the Girondins de Bordeaux gave themselves a breath of fresh air and can therefore still hope to fight for first place held by Saint-Malo, provided that the Bretons lose ground on the way. The hope of moving up to National is therefore still the sporting locomotive of the Aquitaine club, which must however also fear administrative relegation below, to National 3 or Regional. The accounts are not good, the debts of more than 100 million euros are still there, and even the budget of 7 to 8 million euros for this season is not possible to maintain at this level, without TV rights and with a payroll much higher than other clubs.
Oliver Kahn very close to Saudi Arabia
The situation is therefore still catastrophic but the idea of seeing the club being taken over from the hands of Gérard Lopez is perhaps the only reason for hope. Oliver Kahn’s name has been bandied about lately, with the legendary former Bayern Munich goalkeeper out of a job since leaving the Bavarian club in May 2023, and he makes no secret of his dream of being boss of a club in Europe. The German decided to take up the matter, and he inquired with his former teammate Willy Sagnol, former coach of the Girondins, and of course Bixente Lizarazu, former player of the scapular club and Bayern. “ With the takeover of such a prestigious club, we are talking about culture, identity, community and sporting ambitions. It’s a challenge that would excite me », Confided to the Journal du Dimanche a visibly very interested Oliver Kahn.
But passion is not everything, and financially, the former goalkeeper must have strong backs. A graduate in management from an international business school, Oliver Kahn must find economic support to concretely launch his project. And for this, the German turns to Saudi Arabia, which has already been interested in Bordeaux in the past, and with whom he has several relationships, including an academy in his name in the Kingdom. There are also regular offers of collaboration, but he will have to transform this into financial support, while he plans to meet Gérard Lopez at the start of this year 2025 to see directly with the owner of the Girondins what is going on. . Proof in any case that Oliver Kahn’s interest is much more than a rumor, and could relaunch the project of a club still in danger of financial death.
