Coutinho 'a worthy successor' to Robben's No.10 shirt at Bayern

BetOdds Transfers Bayern MÃ¼nchen Primera DivisiÃ³n Bundesliga Barcelona Philippe Coutinho

The Brazilian will wear the No.10 jersey vacated by Arjen Robben at Allianz Arena after the Dutchman gave the club his blessing

Bayern Munich asked retired Arjen Robben for permission before giving new signing Philippe Coutinho his old No.10 shirt and club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge believes the Brazilian is a worthy successor.

After a difficult 18-month spell with Barcelona, Coutinho completed a season-long loan move to Bayern on Monday, with the German champions able to make the switch permanent for â‚¬120 million (Â£133m, $110m) next year.

The Brazilian never quite managed to live up to expectations at Camp Nou, managing just 13 La Liga goals in 52 appearances and falling down the pecking order under Ernesto Valverde.

Bayern, meanwhile, have been undertaking something of a rebuild in recent months, with various older players being moved on or retiring.

Chief among those are Franck Ribery and Robben, with the latter opting to hang up his boots after a 10-year spell at the club that saw him win 20 trophies.

Given their respective contributions to Bayern, Rummenigge confirmed they intended to leave the No.7 and No.10 jerseys unoccupied, but Robben gave permission for Coutinho to take his.

New home and new kit get a thumbs up Â #ServusCoutinho pic.twitter.com/O2iFIbwUjm

When asked about where Coutinho will play, Rummenigge told a news conference: "Hasan [Salihamidzic, sporting director] and Niko [Kovac, coach] have already agreed on all the tactical variants, and Hasan had a talk with Arjen Robben this morning.

"We did not want to give his number away for the time being, as a special gesture, but we also wanted to show how important and valuable this is.

"It was also a very important sign for Philippe that the club is also fully behind him, so Arjen has no problem at all, he wishes him all the best, and he is a more than worthy successor."

Welcome home, Philippe ðŸŸï¸ðŸ”´âšªï¸#ServusCoutinho pic.twitter.com/ZpgrrQIHlu

Coutinho could make his Bayern debut on Saturday when they travel to Gelsenkirchen to face Schalke in the Bundesliga, with Robert Lewandowski among those to welcome the 27-year-old's timely switch to Germany.

Niko Kovac's side opened their 2019-20 campaign in disappointing fashion on Friday, drawing 2-2 with Hertha Berlin at the Allianz Arena.

2019-08-19 18:00:02

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