Naturally, Robert Pires is also looking forward to Tuesday’s top match in the Champions League: Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City will deliver a billion-dollar match in the group with Leipzig. But the Frenchman likes the record champions from Munich much better.
Robert Pires has a lot on his plate at the moment. The Arsenal FC legend is busy moving from London to Ibiza, and once everything is set up there, the 47-year-old wants to finally get his coaching licence. He also still travels a lot in football, back home in France Pires comments on the Champions League and the Premier League as a TV pundit.
In the big interview with kicker (Monday edition), he talks in detail about the top duel between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, but also about his top favourite for the Henkel Cup. And it comes from the Bundesliga.
“More robust and aggressive”: indulgence for Messi
Pep Guardiola’s team sees Pires as having a slight advantage in Paris on Tuesday, partly because Lionel Messi has yet to make much of an impression at PSG. You have to be patient with the Argentine, “because in Ligue 1 they play differently than in Spain, more robust and aggressive”. And in general, Paris Saint-Germain should focus less on individuals, but rather take their cue from FC Bayern if they want to achieve their goals internationally. “
Then Pires, 1998 World Champion and 2000 European Champion, goes into raptures: “I don’t see a better team in Europe than FC Bayern at the moment.” And that is not only due to the personnel line-up with all the stars. Because regardless of whether it’s Manuel Neuer, Robert Lewandowski or Joshua Kimmich: they are all no more important than the big picture. “There is always talk of the club in Munich, which I find wonderful and impressive. In Paris it’s the other way round,” says Pires. There, for example, people talk for weeks about Kylian Mbappé and his future.
In Munich there is always talk about the club, I think that’s wonderful and impressive. In Paris it’s the other way round.
ROBERT PIRES
Pires impressed: “How fast is this Davies anyway? “
And there’s something else about FC Bayern that fascinates Pires, who was a high-speed dribbler on the left himself. “I would be interested to know how fast this Alphonso Davies actually is. I wonder if he’s not even the fastest in all of Europe.” The Canadian has already been flashed at around 36 km/h. Pires marvels: “He amazes me again and again, most recently in the 3-0 win in Barcelona. Davies is incredible.”
Just like Robert Lewandowski, who he believes will win the next big trophy after the Golden Shoe: “Robert would have deserved the Ballon d’Or this year.” And FC Bayern the Handle Cup: “I see them as the absolute top favourites.”
What Robert Pires thinks is decisive in the duel between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, why Chelsea are so strong under Thomas Tuchel, and why he would find a strike duo of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland so spectacular, you can read in the print edition of kicker this Monday or in the e-magazine on Sunday from 10 pm.