Declan Rice on Bayern Munich radar with Kimmich future uncertain

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By Martin Graham | 18th May 2023

Reports from Germany indicate that Thomas Tuchel is plotting a move for West Ham United man Declan Rice as he searches for a replacement for Joshua Kimmich, who could leave the club in the summer.

Kimmich rose through the ranks at the VfB Stuttgart academy but joined up with Red Bull Leipzig in 2013 while they competed in the third tier of German football. There, he was noticed by Bayern Munich and snapped up to become an understudy for Philipp Lahm in 2015.

Kimmich has held the same roles that Lahm did for Der Rekordmeister since the former Germany international retired from the sport in 2017. He has evolved into one of the best in both the right-back and the fullback role and has helped the Bavarians to multiple trophies in that time.

The fairytale journey seems to be coming to an end as Kimmich, 28, is now considering his future outside of the Allianz Arena.

There is no news of where he wants to go next but Barcelona has been mentioned by several sources as a preferred destination for the Germany international. There is also a possibility of him returning to RB Leipzig as well as remaining with Bayern for the foreseeable future.

The Bundesliga giants’ manager, Thomas Tuchel, is not willing to take any chances with Kimmich’s future, however. He is willing to battle it out with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool for £150 million man Declan Rice, who is all but confirmed to be leaving West Ham during the summer transfer window.

It is a big deal for the German giants who have not had any English player feature for them since Owen Hargreaves did between 1999 and 2007.

The former Borussia Dortmund manager has also been looking forward to working with Rice for a while now and sees this as an opportunity to finally do so.

Tuchel was the Chelsea club manager when the Blues first contacted Rice as well as West Ham to sign him. They were met with resistance but now that it is certain that the 24-year-old midfielder will be leaving the London Stadium this summer, Tuchel wants to try again.

Rice, on the other hand, can achieve his title winning ambitions with Bayern Munich while also playing UEFA Champions League football constantly as he has previously expressed.

Bayern have not spent that much for any player in their history so Tuchel’s chase may eventually be called off. The likelihood of this happening is strong as the Bavarians, in April, called off their pursuit of Napoli striker Victor Osimhen due to his similar price tag.