Reschke says he had convinced Rummenigge to sign Kimmich

In that time,

was under Stuttgart's contract and had played on loan at RB Leipzig for two years, the team who desired to sign him on a permanent basis, but Bayern finally stroke the deal with the highly-rated midfielder, paying around €8.5m to have him in his team.

According to Reschke, At first, Bayern CEO, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was reluctant to sign Kimmich.

"Kimmich was the first major signing for which I was primarily responsible. At the Under-19 European Championship in 2014, there were a number of interesting players, such as Nilas Stark, Julian Brandt and Levin Öztunali."

Reschke announced on the podcast 'Meine Bayern Woche'.

"We were particularly interested in Joshua Kimmich. He was clearly the strongest and most interesting player for me at the European Championship.

"In the final contract talks with Stuttgart, [Jochen] Schneider (Stuttgart's sporting director at the time) told me that they respected Joshua's wish to move to Munich. But Ralf Rangnick (RB Leipzig's sporting director at the time) got in touch and said he was willing to put down some real money, which meant €4-5 million definitely wouldn't be enough to sign him."

Reschke continued.

"Rummenigge told me: 'With all due respect, we know how much you value the player, but nearly €10 million for someone who hasn't played a minute of Bundesliga football is a lot of money and unusually much for Bayern.

"I went out on a limb at the time, telling Rummenigge that for a future German international, who would play a key role at Bayern München for years to come, that wasn't a lot of money. I was firmly convinced that we had to sign this player for Bayern München."

Kimmich ultimately moved in

in July 2015 and has played in 254 matches for his team, netting 28 goals and providing 71 assists.

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