Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang trains with Gabon, hosting the Africa Cup of Nations, in Libreville on January 20, 2017 © AFP / GABRIEL BOUYS
Berlin, Germany, Jan 20 – Star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has admitted he could leave Borussia Dortmund in the summer — but has insisted he will never join their Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich.
“I will never go to Bayern, that is for sure,” Aubameyang told new German sports daily FussballBild, which launched on Friday, while on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Gabon.
“That would be too hard for the Dortmund fans.
“It wouldn’t matter what they offer me, I would say ‘no’.
“Doing something like that doesn’t fit with my mentality, so Bayern is out.”
Aubameyang is the German league’s top scorer so far this season with 16 goals in his 15 Bundesliga games and has a Dortmund contract until 2020.
However, he has repeatedly expressed his desire to eventually join Real Madrid, to keep a promise he made to his grandfather just before he died.
“You know, some players have ambitions, so they leave to see something else,” added the 27-year-old.
His flat refusal to join Bayern will come as a relief to Dortmund fans, who have seen Robert Lewandowski, Mats Hummels and Mario Goetze, who later re-signed for Borussia, join the Munich giants in recent years.
But while Aubameyang promises “100 percent” to stay with Dortmund until the end of the season, he would rule nothing out after that.
“No one can see the future. All that is sure is that I am with Dortmund and love it there,” he said.
“But I can’t say that I will stay two more years, or five, or ten.
“It is possible that in June, a club comes along who will find a solution with Dortmund, and I’ll go, but at the moment I am really not thinking about that.
“I am concentrating about my job with my colleagues in Dortmund and Gabon.”
The German league resumes after the winter break on Friday with leaders Bayern Munich at Freiburg, while sixth-placed Dortmund — without Aubameyang — are at Werder Bremen.
