Thibaut Simon, Media365, published on Thursday January 2, 2025 at 9:48 p.m.
According to information from the daily Sud-Ouest, former executive president and Bayern Munich legend Oliver Kahn is interested in taking over the Girondins de Bordeaux, alongside Jacques-Henri Eyraud.
The news comes like an earthquake in Gironde. According to the newspaper Southwesta duo of buyers would be ready to invest in the Girondins de Bordeaux, still placed in receivership. On January 21, the club must go before the commercial court to decide on the future of Bordeaux. Gérard Lopez will request an extension of the observation period for an additional six months, while it ends on January 31, 2025. On a sporting level, the Girondins are playing in National 2 in group B this season. 4th in its group, Bordeaux sees things speed up behind the scenes. Indeed, Oliver Kahn would have contacted Gérard Lopez through Jacques-Henri Eyraud to discuss the conditions of buyout of the club. The former president of OM (2016-2021) would be in contact with the current Bordeaux owner and the Bordeaux town hall as a representative of the former Mannschaft goalkeeper (86 selections between 1993 and 2006).
Kahn to become a “fund aggregator”
After playing 632 matches with Bayern between 1994 and 2008, Oliver Kahn became an administrator, then executive president of the Bavarian club until May 2023. Since his departure, the German has always mentioned the possibility of investing in a club. The situation of the Girondins de Bordeaux could be a great opportunity. “Investing in Football is different from investing in a screw manufacturer. Football is about culture, identity and community. If everything comes together, I can imagine it very well.” he explained to the German weekly Kicker last August. According to information from local daily newspapers, the former goalkeeper would arrive as an “aggregator of funds for a potential buyout”. During his playing career, Oliver Kahn met the Girondins twice in the UEFA Cup. A first time with Karlsruhe in 1994 in the round of 16 and a second time in 1996 during a final with Bayern.
A duo with Eyraud to revive Bordeaux?
The arrival of Oliver Kahn accompanied by Jacques-Henri Eyraud would be good news for Bordeaux, which is looking for investors. While the former Marseille president always maintained good relations with the Bavarian club, he withdrew in 2023, but kept projects related to football. Recently, he played an intermediary role in several takeover projects including that of Toulouse FC, thanks to connections with Luc Besson's company, Europacorp. We will have to wait until this summer to see a possible acceleration of the Kahn-Eyraud project. In the meantime, Bordeaux will return to the field this Saturday January 4 against Locminé.
