Club Profile – Bayern Munich

Like Marmite, or Jose Mourinho, you cannot be indifferent to Bayern Munich if you are a fan of German football. The only team that will guarantee to sell out a stadium whenever and wherever they play away, you can only love them or hate them. Love them, because they are endlessly successful domestically, have a seemingly non-stop conveyor belt of German talent, can buy the other Bundesliga teams best players at the end of the season to reinforce their hegemony and scare the wits out of many or Europe’s other top clubs. Hate them, for all of the same reasons. Oh, and Oliver Kahn.

Due to various historical infractions on the part of the German nation, the Bundesliga wasn’t actually grounded until 1963. Bayern were initially denied membership but gained promotion in 1965. At that point in time, however, they weren’t even the biggest club in Munich – that honour belonged to TSV 1860 Munich (who still claim more support from Munich itself than Bayern – this is probably true, as Bayern’s fans will travel from long distance to watch their team. This is also testament to their ability to fill out away stadiums that might otherwise only be half to two thirds full – Germany actually loves winners, and Bayern will get away support wherever they go as their fans live all over the place. 1860 on the other hand would struggle to fill a pedalo away). Even Franz Beckenbauer admits to being a fan of 1860 when he was young, as his entire family and circle of friends all pledged their allegiance to them.

Once in the top tier in Germany, their initial team was based around the talents of goalie Sepp Maier, ‘libero’ Beckenbauer and Gerd ‘der Bomber’ Müller. They were almost instantly successful, winning the DFB Pokal (German Cup) in 1966, 67, 69 and 71, the European Cup Winners Cup in 1967 and also their first title in 1969 and then in three successive years, from 1972-74, plus a consecutive hattrick of European Cups from 1974-76. This was the first golden age of Bayern, and the European hegemony enjoyed by Bayern at this point is something that their manager, Uli Höness, is still striving for today (he was also a player in the 1970’s team).
After this there followed a relative lull until the start of the 80’s when, with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge leading the line, they once again won the championship in consecutive years (1980 and 81) and then regularly throughout the 80’s which coincided with the return of Udo Lattek as coach, the man who lead them during the golden age. A fourth European Cup win remained elusive though, as they lost to Aston Villa in the 1982 final, and Porto in the 1987 final. They still boasted some fine players, most notably Andreas Brehme (he of the 1990 World Cup penalty fame), Stefan Reuter and Roland Wohlfarth.

The early 90’s were exceptionally lean years and lead to a high turnover in coaches and constant bitching and fighting, leading to the nickname that the bosses hate the most but still sticks, FC Hollywood. A lot of players viewed signing for Bayern as the pinnacle of their careers and that, from that point forth they needn’t try, hence the search for a coach who could install discipline. And this despite having Jürgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthäus and Steffan Effenberg on their books at various times. After 9 coaches in 7 years, including Giovanni Trapattoni and Beckenbauer twice each (!) they finally got their man in Otmmar Hitzfeld, previously of arch rivals Borussia Dortmund. In a six year span he became their most successful manager ever, winning four league titles, two cups and the elusive fourth Champions League / European Cup, having famously lost the 1999 final to Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the last two minutes. Harshly let go by Bayern in 2004 (they won nothing that year), they turned to Felix Magath, formerly of Eintracht Frankfurt, who has promptly delivered the league and cup double in successive seasons. Rather irritatingly, the beat Eintracht Frankfurt in last seasons final, but have yet to feature prominently in European competition, although this looks like changing this year. World Cup heroes Philip Lahm, Lukas Podolski (bought in the off season from 1FC Cologne) and Bastian Schweinsteiger all ply their trade with Bayern, and they conveyor belt of talent looks set to continue with Andreas Ottl, Andreas Görlitz and Michael Rensing comin through.

Basically, love them or loathe them, you have to respect Bayern Munich. They refuse to spend ridiculous amounts of money on new players unless they have to (and even then they look to the cheaper Bundesliga rather than elsewhere) and strive to develop their own players. They have a spanking new stadium in the Allianz Arena, which replaced the ageing Olympiastadion at the start of last season, a balanced budget, no debt and no shareholders. And they keep winning, blast them!