History

Early years (1900–1965)

FC Bayern Munich was founded by members of a Munich gymnastics club (MTV 1879). When a congregation of members of MTV 1879 decided on 27 February 1900 that the footballers of the club would not be allowed to join the German Football Association (DFB), 11 members of the football division left the congregation and on the same evening founded Fußball-Club Bayern München. Within a few months, Bayern achieved high-scoring victories against all local rivals, including a 15–0 win against FC Nordstern,[7] and reached the semi-finals of the 1900–01 South German championship.[4] In the following years, the club won some local trophies and in 1910–11 Bayern joined the newly founded "Kreisliga", the first regional Bavarian league. The club won this league in its first year, but did not win it again until the beginning of the First World War in 1914, which halted all football activities in Germany.[8][9] By the end of its first decade of founding, Bayern had attracted its first German national team player, Max Gaberl Gablonsky.[10] By 1920, it had over 700 members, making it the largest football club in Munich.[10]

From FC Breitnigge to FC Hollywood (1979–1998)

In their first Bundesliga season, Bayern finished third and also won the DFB-Pokal. This qualified them for the following year's European Cup Winners' Cup, which they won in a dramatic final against Scottish club Rangers, when Franz Roth scored the decider in a 1–0 extra time victory.[17] In 1967, Bayern retained the DFB-Pokal, but slow overall progress saw Branko Zebec take over as coach. He replaced Bayern's offensive style of play with a more disciplined approach, and in doing so achieved the first league and cup double in Bundesliga history in 1969. Bayern Munich are one of four German clubs to win the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal in the same season along with Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln and Werder Bremen. Zebec used only 13 players throughout the season.[21] Udo Lattek took charge in 1970. After winning the DFB-Pokal in his first season, Lattek led Bayern to their third German championship. The deciding match in the 1971–72 season against Schalke 04 was the first match in the new Olympiastadion, and was also the first live televised match in Bundesliga history. Bayern beat Schalke 5–1 and thus claimed the title, also setting several records, including points gained and goals scored.[22] Bayern also won the next two championships, but the zenith was their triumph in the 1974 European Cup Final against Atlético Madrid, which Bayern won 4–0 after a replay.[23] This title – after winning the Cup Winners' trophy 1967 and two semi-finals (1968 and 1972) in that competition – marked the club's breakthrough as a force on the international stage. FC Bayern Munich against 1. FC Magdeburg in 1974 During the following years, the team was unsuccessful domestically but defended their European title by defeating Leeds United in the 1975 European Cup Final when Roth and Müller secured victory with late goals. "We came back into the game and scored two lucky goals, so in the end, we were the winners, but we were very, very lucky", stated Franz Beckenbauer. Billy Bremner believed the French referee was "very suspicious". Leeds fans then rioted in Paris and were banned from European football for three years.[24] A year later in Glasgow, Saint-Étienne were defeated by another Roth goal and Bayern became the third club to win the trophy in three consecutive years. The final trophy won by Bayern in this era was the Intercontinental Cup, in which they defeated Brazilian club Cruzeiro over two legs.[25] The rest of the decade was a time of change and saw no further titles for Bayern. In 1977, Franz Beckenbauer left for New York Cosmos and, in 1979, Sepp Maier and Uli Hoeneß retired while Gerd Müller joined the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.[26] Bayerndusel was coined during this period as an expression of either contempt or envy about the sometimes narrow and last-minute wins against other teams.

Renewed international success (1998–2007)

The 1980s were a period of off-field turmoil for Bayern, with many changes in personnel and financial problems. On the field, Paul Breitner and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, termed FC Breitnigge, led the team to Bundesliga titles in 1980 and 1981. Apart from a DFB-Pokal win in 1982, two relatively unsuccessful seasons followed, after which Breitner retired, and former coach Udo Lattek returned. Bayern won the DFB-Pokal in 1984 and went on to win five Bundesliga championships in six seasons, including a double in 1986. European success, however, was elusive during the decade; Bayern managed to claim the runners-up spot in the European Cup in 1982 and 1987.[27] Jupp Heynckes was hired as coach in 1987, but after two consecutive championships in 1988–89 and 1989–90, Bayern's form dipped. After finishing second in 1990–91, the club finished just five points above the relegation places in 1991–92. In 1993–94, Bayern was eliminated in the UEFA Cup second round to Premier League side Norwich City, who remain the only English club to beat Bayern at the Olympiastadion. Success returned when Franz Beckenbauer took over for the second half of the 1993–94 season, winning the championship again after a four-year gap. Beckenbauer was then appointed club president.[28] His successors as coach, Giovanni Trapattoni and Otto Rehhagel, both finished trophyless after a season, not meeting the club's high expectations.[29] During this time, Bayern's players frequently appeared in the gossip pages of the press rather than the sports pages, resulting in the nickname FC Hollywood.[30] Franz Beckenbauer briefly returned at the end of the 1995–96 season as caretaker coach and led his team to victory in the UEFA Cup, beating Bordeaux in the final. For the 1996–97 season, Trapattoni returned to win the championship. In the following season, Bayern lost the title to newly promoted 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Trapattoni had to take his leave for the second time.

Robbery – Robben and Ribery (2007–2019)

For the 2007–08 season, Bayern made drastic squad changes to help rebuild. They signed a total of eight new players and sold, released or loaned out nine of their players.[36] Among new signings were 2006 World Cup stars such as Franck Ribéry, Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni. Bayern went on to win the Bundesliga in convincing fashion, leading the standings on every single week of play, and the DFB-Pokal against Borussia Dortmund.[37] After the season, Bayern's long-term goalkeeper Oliver Kahn retired, which left the club without a top-tier goalkeeper for several seasons. The club's coach Ottmar Hitzfeld also retired and Jürgen Klinsmann was chosen as his successor.[38] However, Klinsmann was sacked even before the end of his first season as Bayern trailed Wolfsburg in the league, had lost the quarterfinal of the DFB-Pokal to Bayer Leverkusen, and had been made look silly in the quarterfinal of the Champions League when FC Barcelona scored four times in the first half of the first leg and over the course of both legs Bayern never looked like they could keep up. Jupp Heynckes was named caretaker coach and led the club to a second-place finish in the league. For the 2009–10 season, Bayern hired Dutch manager Louis van Gaal, and Dutch forward Arjen Robben joined Bayern. Robben, alongside Ribéry, would go on to shape Bayern's playstyle of attacking over the wings for the next ten years. The press quickly dubbed the duo "Robbery". In addition, David Alaba and Thomas Müller were promoted to the first team. With Müller, van Gaal went so far as to proclaim, "With me, Müller always plays," which has become a much-referenced phrase over the years.[40] On the pitch Bayern had its most successful season since 2001, securing the domestic double[41] and losing only in the final of the Champions League to Inter Milan 0–2.[42] Despite the successful 2009–10 campaign, van Gaal was fired in April 2011 as Bayern was trailing in the league and eliminated in the first knockout round of the Champions League, again by Inter. Van Gaal's second in command, Andries Jonker, took over and finished the season in third place.

Flick era (2019–2021)

Hansi Flick joined Bayern Munich on 1 July 2019 as an assistant coach.[59] Under Kovač, Bayern was off to a slow start in the league and after a 5–1 loss to Frankfurt, Kovač and Bayern parted ways on 3 November 2019 with Flick being promoted to interim manager.[60][61] After a satisfying spell as interim coach, Bayern announced on 22 December 2019 that Flick would remain in charge until the end of season.[62] Bayern's performances on the pitch picked up noticeably and in April 2020, the club agreed with Flick to a new permanent contract through 2023.[63] Under Flick the club won the league, having played the most successful leg of a Bundesliga season in history, and went on to claim the cup, thus completing the club's 13th domestic double. In the Champions League, Bayern reached their first final since 2013, en route beating FC Barcelona 8–2 in the quarter-finals[64] and Lyon 3–0 in the semi-final. In the final, which was held in Lisbon behind closed doors due to the severity of COVID-19 pandemic, they defeated Paris Saint-Germain 1–0. Former PSG player Kingsley Coman scored the only goal of the match.[65] With the victory, they became the second European club to complete the continental treble in two different seasons, matching the 2014–15 FC Barcelona team.[66] After a short break, Bayern started the new season by winning the UEFA Super Cup for the second time in their history. In a closely contested match, Bayern defeated Sevilla 2–1 after extra time, with Javi Martínez scoring the winning goal.[67] On 30 September 2020, they won the 2020 DFL-Supercup after defeating the runners-up of the Bundesliga Dortmund 3–2. In February 2021, they won the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup (postponed from December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) after defeating African champions Al Ahly SC 2–0 by a brace from Robert Lewandowski, and then winning in the final against Mexican team Tigres UANL 1–0 after a goal from Benjamin Pavard and became only the second club to win the sextuple, after Barcelona won it in 2009.[68] Later, Bayern failed to defend its Champions League title after being knocked out by PSG in quarter-finals. However, it managed to win its 9th Bundesliga title in a row. During the season, Robert Lewandowski broke Gerd Müller's record for the number of goals scored in a Bundesliga season after scoring 41 times.[69] On 27 April 2021, Bayern announced that Flick would be leaving at the end of the season, at his request, and that RB Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann would become the new manager, effective 1 July.[70] According to multiple reports, Bayern paid Leipzig €25m, a world record for a manager, as compensation for Nagelsmann's services.[71] It was later announced that Flick was leaving to take charge of the German national team of which he had previously been the assistant coach under manager Joachim Löw.[72] Kits

Organization and finance

Others

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