History of Bayern Munich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FC Bayern Munich is a football (soccer) club based in Munich, Germany. An overview of the club can be fond on its main page.
Contents |
[edit] History to World War II
The club was formed in 1900 when a number of football enthusiasts split from Münchner TurnVerein 1879 to escape the influence of the club's gymnasts, who did not hold a great enthusiasm for the new game – an attitude typical of the times. Almost from day one Bayern was a strong local side, but failed to have much of an impact beyond that.
For financial reasons, and to take advantage of better facilities held by other clubs, they twice entered into mergers. In 1906, they negotiated a union with Münchner Sport Club. As part of the arrangement the footballers gave up black as one of their team colours and adopted the red of their new partners, which they wear to this day. Bayern won their first title, as champions of the Bavarian league, in 1909 as a department of MSC. In 1919, shortly after World War I, Bayern left MSC, whose focus turned to field hockey and tennis, sports they are still active in today. Bayern then joined forces with Turn- und Sportverein 1890 Jahn München until leaving that club in 1923, and have remained independent ever since.
In these early days, Bavarian football was dominated by teams from Franken, in the north of the state: 1. FC Nürnberg and their twin town neighbours SpVgg Fürth. In 1914, Fürth became the first team from the state to become national champions and by 1930 these two sides had accumulated eight titles between them. Bayern President Kurt Landauer, who would hold the office on and off from 1913 until well into the 50's, adopted a strategic approach to building up the team and challenging this dominance. He hired the English William Townley, as the side's first professional coach: the Englishman was the best coach on the market in Germany and had a championship with Karlsruher FV, in 1910, to his credit.
In 1926, the Bayern won the South German Championship, but found themselves outdone by local rivals 1860 Munich who, in 1931, became the first side from the Bavarian capital to reach the national final. Inside a year Bayern topped this by even winning the Championship in the final against Eintracht Frankfurt. The team coached by the Hungarian Richard Dombi triumphed through a penalty by Oskar "Ossi" Rohr and another goal by Franz Krumm 2-0.
But history was against Bayern. The advent of the Hitler regime saw the Jewish President resigning quickly, and the team visiting him in his Swiss exile did not help their fortunes in the new era. Dombi, also a Jew, moved on the Netherlands where he picked up the reins of SC Feijenoord in Rotterdam, and laid the foundations for the future greatness of the club. In the ensuing years the club decayed into irrelevance.
An interesting historical footnote is the fact the last recorded match played in the Reich was the derby between Bayern and 1860 Munich (3:2) on April 23 1945. Less than three weeks later Germany capitulated.
[edit] Transition years
After World War II, Bayern played in the Oberliga Süd which was one of five upper league conferences established in the western half of the country. Through the period from the formation of the Oberligen in 1947 to the creation of the Bundesliga, Germany's professional league, in 1963, they played as a middling side. The best they could manage in their division was third- and fourth-place finishes. They even found themselves relegated to the second tier for the 1956 season – the first and only time this has happened.
Bayern did enjoy some measure of success outside of regular league play. They captured the 1957 German Cup – just their second national trophy – on a 78th minute goal by Rudi Jobst against Fortuna Düsseldorf. October 16, 1962, marked the debut of the club on the European scene: in the opening round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup they beat Switzerland's FC Basel (3:0), but then went out in the quarter finals against eventual finalist NK Dinamo Zagreb (1:4) and (0:0).
[edit] Early Successes in the Bundesliga
With the beginning of the 1963-64 season the first German division which hitherto was split into five regional divisions, was unified into one national league, the Bundesliga.
The start of the new league sees disappointed faces with the reds in Munich. As TSV 1860 had just won the last Oberliga championship - one of the few occasions they have been ahead of Bayern in that era - it is them who join the new elite of German football. Bayern's newly elected president Wilhelm Neudecker, the father of the modern FC Bayern accepts the challenge and hires Zlatko "Czik" Čajkovski, a former Yugoslav World Cup player of 1950 and 1954, and of more recent fame for coaching Cologne to the 1962 championship. This coup pays off. The rotund gourmet forms an aspiring team with the talented young players that should later be referred to as "the axis": goal keeper Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller.
The team, average age 22, immediately reaches place three in the league in a year when a sparkling 1860 wins their first and only national champions title. Even more important for Bayern should be the win in the Cup final against MSV Duisburg (4-2), leading them into the Cup Winners Cup.
The team's star is doubtlessly the 20 year old Franz Beckenbauer who finishes this season off by playing at the World Cup 1966 in England where he captures the imagination of a global audience. His efforts were rewarded with a third place in the voting for Europe's Player of the Year.
In the next season Bayern becomes the only third German team ever to defend the German Cup as Hamburg proved easy prey in the final and was wiped away with a record 4-0 win. The undeniable highlight was the participation in the European Cup Winners Cup in Nürnberg which the young team wins in a dramatic final 1-0 against Rangers FC of Glasgow. The goal in extra time was scored by Franz "the Bull" Roth, who should deliver more deciders for Bayern on utmost important occasions.
A slow down of progress in the 1967-68 season saw another Yugoslav, Branko Zebec taking over Čajkovski's job. He curbed the offensive style of the Bayern play and the discipline pays off by Bayern winning the 1968-69 Championship with the Cup to boot: the first double in Bundesliga history. During the whole season Bayern used only 13 players.
In Borussia Mönchengladbach, promoted to the Bundesliga in the same year as Bayern, emerges a serious rival to Bayern's ascendancy. The next two Championships were theirs, and Bayern president Neudecker on recommendation of Beckenbauer called on Udo Lattek from the coaching staff of the national team to take over the reins at Bayern. In his first year he only managed to return the Cup to the banks of Isar river, but with young and hungry reinforcements such as Paul Breitner and Uli Hoeness he formed the team that achieved the first German Championship hat-trick in history.
[edit] 1972 - the Watershed
In the last match of the 1971-72 season Bayern sealed their return to Germanys's top with a stunning 5-1 win against Schalke 04. Schalke needed a win to get the title but only ended up the best runner-up in Bundesliga history. This was also Bayern's first official match in the new Olympic Stadium. The sellout crowd of 80 000 assured the club the first gate in excess a 1 000 000 Marks.
Their home ground until then was the Municipal Stadion an der Grünwalder Strasse, colloquially referred to as the Grünwalder, or Sechz'ger ("Sixtier"), as it was owned before the war by TSV 1860. It was a pretty run down place with a maximum capacity of around 40 000, mostly standing places. Indeed, it was so downmarket that since 1940 Munich, after all the country's third largest city, had not hosted a single match of the national team.
The Olympic Stadium, in its heyday considered one of the world's most beautiful and comfortable stadiums, meant a major boost for Bayern's revenues, not only because of its mere capacity, but also for the much higher number of high yielding seats. Thus, the 1972 Olympics in Munich were a major fortunate circumstance for the club and assured them financial superiority at least until the 1974 World Cup with its flood of new and rebuilt stadiums in the rest of the country. Successive successful seasons on the European stage helped to fill the stadium in an era when the gate revenue was still the very major source of income. Sponsorships and TV rights were a welcome but minor addition to annual budgets that were then around five million Euros. Transfer fee surplusses could also contribute, but, if achieved, meant generally a loss of quality in the team.
Beyond a quality leadership, the luck of having players of the highest quality grown from the own ranks or acquired cheaply as young talents and the fact that in those days the Italian and Spanish leagues were closed to foreign players, the perfect timing of the arrival of the new stadium was probably the most crucial point in securing Bayern a foremost position on the national and also European level. It allowed Bayern, e.g., as in opposite to rivals Mönchengladbach, to keep their major players on board, and even expand from there.
When Spain in 1973 re-opened its borders to foreign talent a giant 1.5m Euro offer for Gerd Müller from FC Barcelona could be fended off and Barça had to make do with Johan Cruijff. On the other hand the national rivals from the Rhine, Mönchengladbach, had to let their superstar Günter Netzer go to Real Madrid. Soon thereafter Bayern could also hire the services of Jupp Kapellmann from Cologne's 1.FC for the then national record transfer fee of almost 400 000 Euros.
Thus, the year 1972, crowned with a championship that broke all records - most of them still intact - was the decisive year for Bayern to become a global player. That on top of this six players from Bayern were part of the German squad, the most stylish of all time, that won the European Championship put just another exclamation mark to this watershed season. The defence of the title the following year with a record gap to the nearest suitor served in historic terms merely as confirmation of the new facts.
The third championship in 1974 coincides with Bayern also winning as first German team the European Cup of Champions. In the last minute of extra time in Brussel's Heysel Stadium full back Georg Schwarzenbeck surprises friend and foe, and himself too, when he scores with a flat shot from 35 metres the equaliser against Atlético Madrid. In the first ever repeat of a Champions Cup final two days later Bayern draw all their registers and two goals each from Uli Hoeness and Gerd Müller see a dashing Bayern at the peak of Europe.
Six Bayern players were also part of the German side that won the World Cup final of the same year against the Netherlands. In the following season the team's motivation on the national level was exhausted, but under coach Dettmar Cramer they still manage to score the big points. In 1975 Leeds United became the Bayern victims in the Champions Cup final in Paris when "Bull" Roth and Müller secured the defence of the cup with their late goals. Bayern then also established a new record of sorts: the only Champions Cup winner to date with a negative national league record in the same season. Within twelve months, in Glasgow, AS Saint-Étienne was sent into a valley of tears by another goal of Franz Roth and Bayern became the third, and hitherto last team to win the trophy in three consecutive years.
The Intercontinental Cup finals in December 1976 marked the end of this great era. Bayern prevailed once more. In a frosty Olympiastadion the playful Brazilians from Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte fell prey to goals by Jupp Kapellmann and Müller. A monumental defensive effort front of 117 000 held Cruzeiro to a nil all draw on their home turf. Within the next couple of years Beckenbauer and Müller left for the USA and Maier's career was terminated by a car accident - after he had been without interruption for 13 complete seasons in the start line-up of the team. A world record! Bayern was in need of a new beginning.
[edit] Renewed Success in the 1980s
Lack of success saw president Neudecker on the verge of contracting Max Merkel as new coach - the team unanimously voted against him. This novel type of revolution saw Bayern dominating the television news in a culture where sports were an irregular addendum to them. The consequential resignation of the autocratic president Neudecker, arguably the father of the modern FC Bayern, was again the top news item, even on the highbrow Tagesschau news in an era without commercial television.
Thus Hungarian Pal Csernai, who came as assistant of Cramer replacement Gyula Lorant became head coach. In his tenure he revolutionised the style of Bayern by introducing the spatial defence, then in Munich referred to as Pal System. When Paul Breitner returned via Braunschweig from his years with Real Madrid he formed a congenial pair with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. The FC Breitnigge, re-enforced with Belgian goal-keeping legend Jean-Marie Pfaff, Klaus Augenthaler and striker Dieter Hoeness (yes, brother of ...), brought success back to Munich. Two championships and a cup bear witness to this era. The hopes for coronation as kings of Europe were thwarted in the final of Rotterdam against Aston Villa, when for a brief moment a man named Peter Withe stepped out of obscurity and scored the decider for the team from Birmingham. This was also the first official final that Bayern had lost in its history after twelve undefeated final appearances!
The era Csernai had to come to an end when sporting success seemed no longer assured and his eccentricity endangered the image of the club with their major sponsors. Udo Lattek was called for a second spell at the Isar, and he should not disappoint, despite initial financial issues. For hiring Danish playmaker Søren Lerby from Ajax to replace the retiring Breitner, Bayern had pledged "the last money", so president W.O. Hoffmann.
The cup victory in the 1984 final against Mönchengladbach was won in the penalty shootout, the first in the history of this competition. The young Lothar Matthäus, whose transfer to Munich for 1.2m Euros was announced just weeks before, missed the first penalty for his old team.
After Rummenigge's transfer to Inter for a world record fee of more than 5m Euros restored the club's finances, the team was now denuded of its superstars, but the reformed squad secured one more cup, as part of a double, and five championships inside six years including the second hat-trick, leading to the tenth title allowing the club to finally overtake 1. FC Nürnberg (Nuremberg) as record holders. But, it remained another generation that was denied continental glory. In the Champions Cup final of Vienna 1987, FC Porto prevailed thanks to two goals by Madjer and Juary in the last 13 minutes. The early Bayern lead through a header by Ludwig Kögl proved not enough.
This was the time when Udo Lattek decided to retire and Bayern, keen on refilling their coffers, let go of quite a few players.
The new coach, Jupp Heynckes, already at his former post in Mönchengladbach successor of Lattek, started with a title-free season, after which Matthäus and Andreas Brehme went to Inter from where a generous reimbursement was received. Also Pfaff and three more players left. As Olaf Thon and Stefan Reuter were the most prominent newcomers, hopes were not high, but in the next couple of years two more championships became part of the Bayern's history. Augenthaler's retirement and the sale of Jürgen Kohler and Stefan Reuter to Juventus stretched the possibilities of the team. The second consecutive trophyless season in the offing ends the era Heynckes prematurely.
Former player Søren Lerby and Erich Ribbeck succeed Heynckes and former superstars Beckenbauer and Rummenigge were integrated into the club's hierarchy as vice-presidents. Duitch international Jan Wouters transferred from Amsterdam as defensive re-enforcement and even retired ex-National-keeper Harald "Toni" Schumacher formerly of Cologne was re-activated briefly. At the end of the turbulent 1991-92 season the Bayern defence was the third weakest of the league and only five points saved the club from relegation. B 1903 Copenhagen ousted Bayern from the UEFA Cup at ease with 6-2 / 0-1. The team, in the past decade twice finalist and three more times in the semifinals of the Champions Cup was no longer a top address of the continent.
The club was in fear for its role and in the next season Bayern plundered the accounts and spent 12m Euros on the market. Thomas Helmer (4m), Brazil's captain Jorginho (2.8m) and Lothar Matthäus (2m) topped the bill of a list that also included Mehmet Scholl. Calming the nerves of the thrifty president Dr. Fritz Scherer, economics professor at Munich University, was the sale of Stefan Effenberg and Brian Laudrup for 8.5m Euros to Fiorentina.
Success only returnes when Franz Beckenbauer takws seat on the bench for the second half of the 1993-94 season, winning the Championship-Plate again after a three year drought.
Kaiser Franz, thus completely teleported to a quasi mythological figure, becomes president and Giovanni Trapattoni is hired as the first Italian coach in the Bundesliga. "Trap" gains the respect of the experts but, apparently language problems see the team in disarray. After one year and place six Otto Rehhagel, is invited to implant the spirit with which he had achieved good success in his 14 consecutive years with Werder Bremen to a team now often referred to as FC Hollywood. As the team continues to have more impact on the social pages of the tabloids than on the pitch "King Otto's" tenure is cut short and the Kaiser himself ensures victory in the finals of the 1996 UEFA Cup against Girondins from Bordeaux. Zidane, Dugarry, Lizarazu and Holland's Witschge are outclassed 2-0 and even 3-1 away. Jürgen Klinsmann scored a record breaking 15 goals in this European campaign that led Bayern to their first continental trophy in 20 years, after eliminating, amongst others Benfica, Nottingham Forest and FC Barcelona.
A linguistically enhanced Giovanni Trapattoni returns to the coaching job with Bayern and rewards the renewed trust with an immediate championship, but the Cup in the season thereafter should remain the farewell present to Munich of this extraordinarily successful coach, and the penultimate entry in his personal trophy register.
[edit] Beginning of the new Millennium
The next six years should be marked by enormous quantitative successes, rather than Munich being considered a hub of cultured game. It was the time when Ottmar Hitzfeld took the opportunity of succeeding Udo Lattek as most successful German coach, even finding a spot for himself amongst the greatest European coaches of all time.
In his first season 1999 the championship is returned, but undeniably the highlight was the unforgettable UEFA Champions League final in Barcelona. Bayern led early after a Mario Basler free kick and controlled most of the match, but Manchester United sensationally turned the match in stoppage time. Inside 90 seconds Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær transformed an excellent performance of Bayern into the sight of uninhibited tears by Samuel Kuffour and co. The defeat in the penalty shootout of the national cup final against Werder Bremen two weeks later drew not much attention anymore. For Lothar Matthäus it was the second time that he misses a decisive penalty in a cup final.
In the next season Bremen saw Bayern exercising revenche with a 3-0 in a repeat of this cup final and thus Bayern achieving its third double. In Europe the campaign of the team now dominated by goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, midfield engine Stefan Effenberg and striker Giovane Elber ended in the semifinal encounters with later winners Real Madrid (0-2, 2-1).
In 2001, after a quarter of a century of absence the European Champions Cup eventually returned to Munich. Bayern exacted revenge against 1999 winners Manchester United in the quarter finals with two wins (1-0, 2-1). The semifinal again witnessed a revenge fixture, this time Real Madrid was the opponent: Bayern won both matches against the Castillians (1-0, 2-1). At the final in Milan, Valencia CF from Spain came off second best, like in the previous year. In a hardly memorable match all goals where achieved by spot kicks. In the end Bayern prevailed deservedly in the penalty shootout (1-1 (5-4p)). The spine of this team was Oliver Kahn who held three penalties and whose mental fortitude was also crucial for winning the national championship just a few days earlier. In the heartbreak finish of the Bundesliga Bayern stayed ahead of Schalke through Swedish defender Patrik Andersson's goal in Hamburg in literally the last second of the season and assured the club a third consecutive title. For runners up Schalke 04, their 4½ minutes championship celebrations proved premature.
In the next season the team was not able to win a record 4th consecutive Bundesliga title, or the cup. In the Champions League semi-final later winners Real Madrid prevailed despite losing three out of their four encounters with the Bavarians in the course of the competition. Saving grace was the win of the Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo against Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires through a goal of Sammy Kuffour in extra time.
National glory returned in 2002-03 when Bayern achieved its fourth double by winning the Bundesliga with the second largest gap ever to the runner up and a straight 3-1 win over 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the cup final. However, the whole season was overshadowed by Bayern's unceremonious exit from the Champions League in the first group stage, without so much as a single win in six matches. In the following season the team, enhanced with the 19m Euros acquisition of Dutch striker Roy Makaay from Deportivo La Coruña, overcame at least this hurdle, but even an underperforming Real Madrid in crisis managed to eliminate the Reds in the round of the last 16. Bayern itself was not reaching any consistent form all year and even the formerly sturdy defence proved highly vulnerable. In the end the second place in the league was not descriptive of Bayern's strength but rather of inconsistent performances by the competitors. The cup elimination by second division Alemannia Aachen was symptomatic for a season in which the team showed not a single convincing performance. Even the newcomers Michael Ballack and the World Cup winning defender Lúcio could not make a difference.
At the end it was decided to renounce the services of Ottmar Hitzfeld for the last year of his contract and Felix Magath, as player part of the Hamburger SV side of the late 70s to mid 80s which was so highly competitive with Bayern and also successful in Europe, was given the chance to put his mark on a new Bayern generation. If used wisely, he now can make a name for himself in the history of the game also as a coach. In his first year he has already achieved a convincing double.
Beginning with the 2005-06 season, Bayern moved from the Olympic Stadium to the new Allianz Arena, which the club owns jointly with local rivals TSV 1860. Thus far Bayern has won all their matches there, and also the fans have received it well; almost all home matches were in front of sell-out crowds. It was again the national double that could be celebrated in the new ground at the end of the season; however, the club's performance on international level proved once more to be rather dismal: a crushing 1-4 defeat by AC Milan in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League put a quick end to their campaign. The Championship Plate and the Cup were also farewell presents for Bixente Lizarazu and Jens Jeremies, two players who ended their career after many successful years for the club. The loss of influential player Michael Ballack to Chelsea on a free transfer greatly upset Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who has moaned about Chelsea's spending power being "Not acceptable or fair." Bayern's own reputation, as Germany's least loved and most oppressively powerful club, lends his words a certain irony.
For the 2006-07 season, Bayern have thinned out their squad with Michael Ballack and Zé Roberto leaving the club, José Paolo Guerrero being sold to Bundesliga rivals Hamburger SV and Bixente Lizarazu and Jens Jeremies ending their careers. German international Lukas Podolski has found his way to Bayern after months of speculations concerning his future after the relegation of his former club 1.FC Köln. To strengthen their defence, Daniel van Buyten was signed from Hamburger SV. Due to the club's early exits in the previous years expectations on international level have been toned down by the clubs officials, also reflecting their reluctance to spend extremely high sums on "superstar"-players.
