Bayern Munich have released an official statement, questioning Germany coach Joachim Low's decision to drop Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng & Mats Hummels from the national team.
Low has indicated he will not select Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng - who have 246 caps between them - for future games, summarily retiring the trio.
The decision comes with the national team boss ready to move on to a new generation, saying: “This is the year for our new beginning.”
But the timing of it - ahead of key Bundesliga and Champions League games - and finality of the treatment of the three 2014 World Cup winners on a surprise visit to the training ground, has annoyed their club.
The statement reads:
Joachim Low has decided not to consider our players Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng in the future. Basically, we do not comment on sporting decisions of the national coach, the nomination of the national team squad is solely the responsibility of Low.
However, we believe the timing and circumstances of the announcement of this decision to the players and the public is questionable. The last international match of Germany took place on 19 November 2018.
The fact that the players and the public were informed about three months later, just ahead of our two important matches - the game against Wolfsburg in the title race of the Bundesliga and a few days before the decisive return match against Liverpool in the second leg of Champions League round of 16 next Wednesday, irritates us.
In addition, we were surprised that this was done yesterday during an unannounced visit.
Thomas Muller (100 caps) Mats Hummels (70) and Jerome Boateng (76) have completed 246 games for the national team, they have had an extremely successful decade with Germany coined by winning the world cup in 2014 as absolute highlight.
FC Bayern have great respect for the sporting merits of Thomas, Mats and Jerome with the national team and German football.