Bayern Munich
The most successful club in German football history.
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, German: [ˈfuːsbalˌklʊp ˈbaɪɐn ˈmʏnçn̩]), commonly known as Bayern Munich (German: Bayern München), FC Bayern (German: [ˌɛft͡seː ˈbaɪɐn] ) or simply Bayern, is a professional sports club based in Munich, Germany. They are most known for their men's professional football team, who play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Bayern are the most successful club in German football and are among the world's most decorated, having won a record 35 national titles, including eleven consecutive titles from 2013 to 2023 and a record 21 national cups, the DFB-Pokal, alongside one of the highest number of top European titles.
Quick Facts
- Rival type
- National; Title Contender
- Primary era
- 1997–2004 and 2018–Present
- Defining narrative
- The Invincibles vs. The Unbeatables
- Key stadiums
- BayArena, Allianz Arena
- Status
- Active Intense Rivalry
Lore & Background
Bayern Munich was founded in 1900 by eleven players, led by Franz John. Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga during its inception in 1963. The club found success in the mid/late-1960s, but the pinnacle came in the 1970s under the captaincy of Franz Beckenbauer, as they won the European Cup three consecutive times (1974–1976). Overall, Bayern have won six European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles (a German record), winning their sixth title in the 2020 final as part of the treble, and it became the second European club to achieve this feat twice. Furthermore, the club is one of five teams that have earned the right to keep the trophy and to wear a multiple-winner badge. The club has reached the final of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League 11 times, a joint second-most of any club in the history of the competition and is also second placed in numbers of semi-final appearances with 22. Bayern has also won one UEFA Cup, one European Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups and two Intercontinental Cups, making it one of the most successful European clubs internationally, and the only German club to have won both international titles. Bayern players have accumulated five Ballon d'Or awards with multiple players coming in the second position in the award, two The Best FIFA Men's Player awards, six European Golden Shoe and three UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards, including UEFA Club Footballer of the Year. The club had at least one player in eleven consecutive FIFA World Cup finals from 1986 to 2022. By winning the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, Bayern Munich became only the second club to win the 'sextuple' (winning the League, Cup, and Champions League in one season followed by the Domestic Supercup, UEFA Supercup and Club World Cup in the next season), or all trophies that a club can win in a calendar year. Bayern Munich is one of five clubs to have won all three of UEFA's main club competitions and the only German club to achieve that. The club has traditional local rivalries with 1860 Munich and 1. FC Nürnberg. The rivalry it has with Borussia Dortmund is known as Der Klassiker.
Reader's Guide
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), eleven 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 Nordstern, and reached the semi-finals of the 1900–01 South German championship. 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. By the end of its first decade of founding, Bayern had its first German national team player, Max Gablonsky. By 1920, it had over 700 members, making it the largest football club in Munich. In the years after the war, Bayern won several regional competitions before winning its first South German championship in 1926, an achievement repeated two years later. Its first national title was gained in 1932, when coach Richard 'Little Dombi' Kohn led the team to the German championship by defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 2–0 in the final. The rise of Adolf Hitler to power put an abrupt end to Bayern's development. Club president Kurt Landauer and the coach, both of whom were Jewish, left the country. Many others in the club were also purged. Bayern was taunted as the 'Jew's club', while local rival 1860 Munich gained much support. After a friendly match in Switzerland, some Bayern players greeted Landauer, who was a spectator, and the club was subject to continued discrimination. Despite these associations, club president Josef Kellner (1938-45) was an NSDAP member and administrator in the Sudetenland. Bayern was also affected by the ruling that football players had to be full amateurs again, which led to the move of gifted young centre-forward Oskar Rohr to Switzerland. In the following years, Bayern could not sustain its role of contender for the national title, achieving mid-table results in its regional league instead.
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