Dubai: Goalkeeper Oliver Kahn may forsake his gloves for a desk and a managerial position at Bayern Munich according to the man whose job he is set to take.
Bayern business boss Uli Hoeness, confirmed rumours that Kahn could be donning a suit and prowling the boardroom instead of the 18-yard-box, but insisted that it was too early to say for sure.
Hoeness and Kahn are in town for the Mohammad Bin Rashid Football Championship which will see the German club clash with French Ligue 1 outfits Marseille, Portugal's Benfica and Italy's Lazio for a winner's cheque of $1 million (Dh3.678 million).
Kahn retired from international football after the 2006 World Cup, when he was forced to watch Jens Lehman between the posts for the greater part of the hosts' campaign.
The Germans came third behind Italy and France and Kahn was allowed to play in the 3-1 third-place playoff win over Portugal, but announced his international retirement immediately after the final whistle.
Now, the fiercely competitive goalie has said that he is likely to retire from playing football altogether at the end of next season.
"I will be 39 then and it's time to take off the shorts and begin to develop yourself in a different direction," he said recently.
And yesterday, before Bayern's clash with Benfica, Hoeness hinted that Kahn's 'new direction' could be his own job but insisted that the move wasn't set in stone.
"That is an option," he admitted. "But we also don't know exactly when he is retiring or when I will go, I may have a possible one or two years left, so it makes no sense to discuss the possibility right now.
"At this minute he has a contract until the end of the 2008 season. As fit as he [Kahn] is now, you never can tell 100 per cent what will happen."
