After the initial bout of rumors that suggested Mathys Tel could be on his way out of Bayern Munich this winter with a swap deal for Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku, the striker insisted he wanted to stay with the Rekordmeister. Since then, though, Tel did not feature at all for Bayern in their 3-2 Bundesliga win over VfL Wolfsburg or their 3-0 loss at Feyenoord in the Champions League. Similarly, Tel remained on the bench for the team’s 2-1 victory over SC Freiburg on Saturday as well.
He also did not play a part in the first match of 2025, which came in the form of an away win via a Harry Kane penalty at Borussia Mönchengladbach — he only featured in the 5-0 win over Hoffenheim so far in 2025.
While it seemed like Tel was intent on staying in Munich, things could yet still change before the winter transfer window closes at the beginning of next month.
Per new information from Sky Sport journalist Florian Plettenberg (via @iMiaSanMia), Tel could still change his mind and decide to go elsewhere, but there are a lot of moving parts. For one, Olympique Marseille have expressed interest in Tel, as they are in need of replacing Elye Wahi, who just made a move to Eintracht Frankfurt. Interestingly enough, Nkunku still has a desire to join Bayern, but Manchester United have now also entered the race to sign the French winger in what would be some sort of swap deal with Alejandro Garnacho. Both United and Chelsea have reportedly held initial talks about the prospect of the aforementioned deal taking place before the end of this month.
Nkunku’s agent, Pini Zahavi, who Bayern are no stranger at all to dealing with, has not yet given up on getting his client to Bayern, but the only way that will happen is if Tel leaves the club this winter. He has to decide whether or not he is open to leaving or if he wants to roll the dice and stay at Bayern, where he might continue to not get a plethora of minutes under Vincent Kompany.
Fabrizio Romano (via @iMiaSanMia) chimed in with even more news on the matter and it is starting to look and feel like a move could happen:
@FabrizioRomano: ‘My feeling is that Mathys Tel’s situation has changed in the past 24 hours. After he got no minutes for 3 games in a row, Tel will try this week to understand what’s going to happen. There’s still a chance he would leave this month. Tel has many inquiries for a loan move from all over Europe. And he also has the chance to join Chelsea on a permanent deal. If Tel ends up leaving, then the Nkunku to Bayern deal could go through’
Stay tuned…things might happen fast.
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