Berlin, Dec 12 (IANS) German football club RB Leipzig’s head coach Ralf Rangnick on Saturday regretted his earlier decisions to turn down the chance to sign Philipp Lahm and Robert Lewandowski who are currently leading the charge for Bundesliga heavyweights Bayern Munich.
Rangnik said that he turned down the opportunity to sign them when he was in charge of Hannover (2001-2004) and TSG Hoffenheim (2006-2011).
Currently 32-year-old Lahm captains Bayern, while Lewandoski, 27, leads the attacking unit of the side coached by Pep Guardiola, They currently lead the Bundesliga standings with 40 points from 15 games.
“At the time Philipp played in midfield and I told the Bayern coach Hermann Gerland that I already have a player like him with Altin Lala. In retrospect, it must be said, of course, that we would have had use for Philipp Lahm,” Rangnik was quoted as saying by dailymail.co.uk.
The 57-year-old also moaned over his mistake during the Hoffenheim stint.
“At the time I rejected the transfer of Robert Lewandowski. We felt that, with how he played in Poland, he was no better than our players (Vedad) Ibisevic, (Demba) Ba or (Chinedu) Obasi.”
Leipzig are flying high in the Bundesliga 2 and remain in the automatic promotion spots, as they aim to gain a promotion to the top flight.
