Uli Hoeness, Bayern Munich President, has revealed that he first met Pep Guardiola while on a business trip to Chicago where he (Hoeness that is) was trying to sell his sausages to Aldi. Not only that but Sir Alex Ferguson nearly walked in on their 'secret' meeting.
Hoeness told Bild that he heard Guardiola was in the USA at the same time as him and he wanted to arrange a meeting under the cover of darkness to sound out the former Barca man for the Bayern job:
'I went to Chicago first to visit Aldi. I knew that Pep was about to fly to Barcelona for his holidays and that a meeting there would have been far more dangerous, so we decided I would meet him in the States, where the risk of being spotted was smaller.'
Turns out the risk was still pretty grave...
'I wanted to take him out for a meal, but that night, Alex Ferguson was dining in the very same restaurant.
'It certainly would not have been funny had he seen me and Pep together.'
For what it's worth the Daily Express say that United were also in talks with Pep about taking over from Fergie at the time but they also spelled 'meat' 'meet' so take what you want from that.
