Bayern Munich’s professional history began in the 1960s, which is quite late in comparison to many of Europe’s other elite clubs. As the undisputed leading German football club for most of the last 50 years however, they have a rich history of excellence and success at both domestic and continental level.
An important role in this success is a certain amount of ingenuity that they have shown in the transfer market, signing promising players at young ages or being able to attract some of the best footballers on the planet with the required amount of cash as and when that is feasible.
Bayern are, today, masters of the transfer market, and their signings rarely bomb like some signings made by clubs of similar stature. However, there are some signings that really did change the course of their history in a big way. The best 5 are:
#5 Franck Ribery:
Ribery was signed for a sum of €25 million after the 24-year-old had impressed fans at the 2006 World Cup held in Germany, before a glorious second season with French club Marseille which earned him the title of French Player of The Year (beating off competition from Thierry Henry).
Ribery quickly settled into life at the Bavarian club, acting as their attacking mainstay en route to a domestic league-and-cup double. He provided 19 goals and 17 assists and played 46 games, showing class and consistency befitting one of the greatest players of this generation.
Although he has had injury problems in most seasons after that, he has always managed to come back to the very peak of his game despite each setback. His role is most notable in Bayern’s treble-winning season, when he ran into Ballon D’Or-worthy form for the Bavarians in the calendar year of 2013.
He prefers to hug the touchline, take on fullbacks and create chances from his own zone, but his role as an inverted winger gives him the ability to venture into more central areas of the pitch. He takes handy advantage of this and is one of the most active players around the box, playing his role there to perfection.
In 9 seasons, Ribery has 106 goals and more than his fair share of assists for the Bavarians, for whom he has become a legend, and fittingly he is one of the best buys they have ever made despite having to break their transfer record for him initially.
#4 Lothar Matthaus:
In 2 spells lasting a total of 11 years, Lothar Matthaus was the driving force for the Bayern Munich midfield – the glue that held them together and enabled them to win 7 Bundesliga titles in his time at the club.
Initially having graduated from the youth system of FC Herzogenaurach and spending 5 years at Borussia Moenchengladbach, Lothar signed for Bayern for his first spell in 1984 for a sum of 1.2 million euros, quite a significant amount at the time.
He was instrumental in leading them to 3 Bundesliga titles and an appearance in the UEFA Champions League final in 1986-87. The final was a rather unfair blow to him, as Bayern conceded 2 late goals after his substitution from the game and lost to Porto from a winning position.
After his initial spell, Internazionale swooped for him in 1988 and paid 3.6 million euros. Bayern bought him back from Inter in 1992 for 2 million, and this time, he stayed at the club for a longer period, helping them re-establish themselves as a European powerhouse once more.
He got another crack at the Champions League title in the 1998-99 season, when once again Bayern conceded late goals against Manchester United and let another European crown slip from their grip, after his substitution. His appearance in the Champions League final was his last for Bayern, as he moved to USA to play for MetroStars.
#3 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge:
He made a name for himself at his old club Borussia Lipstadt, which was an amateur side that gladly accepted the 10,000 Euros that Bayern invested in bringing him to the club: a respectable amount in 1974.
Despite being a wide player at the time, he adapted to playing close to the goal and knocked in a number of crucial goals at various points of the season, helping Bayern to European Cup triumphs in his first 2 seasons at the club.
Later in his career, after ‘Der Bomber’ Gerd Muller’s departure from the club, he adapted to the position of centre forward wonderfully, both for Bayern and in the West Germany national team colours. In his last 5 seasons at Bayern, Rummenigge had 155 goals in 224 appearances, and he won the Bundesliga topscorer’s cannon twice in this period.
In total, Rummenigge appeared in 416 official games and scored 217 goals, keeping them relevant in a period of comparatively little success at both domestic and international levels.
He is one of the most important players in the club’s history, and the club has recognized his role in driving them to titles in the 80s by giving him prominent roles in the administration after his retirement. He currently serves as the club’s CEO of football affairs, as well as the role of ECA Chairman (European Club Association, a prominent club body).
#2 Oliver Kahn:
Oliver Kahn was the embodiment of German excellence for much of the late 90s and early noughties of this century. In a period when Germany had a comparatively barren streak at producing world-class players, Kahn and Michael Ballack were the gold standard for German football and dragged them to relevance in major international tournaments.
After plying his trade for Karlsruher SC (his boyhood club) for 7 seasons, he earned the big move to Bayern, where he immediately established himself as their starting goalkeeper after the departure of Raimond Aumann. Although he ruptured ligaments midway into the season, he made a comeback to the XI the following season, starting to show the brilliance that would last a long time into his career.
Over the course of his Bayern career, Kahn won a Champions League title, a UEFA Cup and an Intercontinental Cup, but more importantly, he won 8 Bundesligas and 6 Pokal titles and helped to reestablish Bayern at the very forefront of German football, as they were in the 1970s.
He had the typical goalkeeper’s personality: charismatic, animated, yet calm, and has been the subject of a number of Internet trolls for some of his shouting matches with his defenders. For most of his career, Kahn ranked among the very best in the world and was awarded the trophy of ‘Best Goalkeeper in the World’ by IFFHS 3 times, and the title of Best European Goalkeeper 4 times.
He is also the only goalkeeper to finish twice on the Ballon D’Or podium, voted at the 3rd position in the years 2001 and 2002. His legacy at Bayern is unchallenged, and he is generally accepted as the best goalkeeper to serve the club in their history.
#1 Gerd Muller:
As Bayern Munich and Germany’s greatest forward ever, Gerd Muller’s name is written in history books as possibly the most terrifying poacher to ever grace the game. He might, though, never have had the career that he eventually conjured up if he hadn’t moved from his boyhood club TSV Nordinglen to Bayern, where he teamed up with Sepp Maier and Franz Beckenbauer for the first time.
When he first moved to the Munich-based club, they were still playing in the German second division. Muller topped the 51 goals he scored in the previous season with Nordinglen (in what was then the fifth tier of professional German football) with 33 goals in the Regionalliga for Bayern, being instrumental to their league victory and subsequent promotion to the Bundesliga.
For the rest of his Bayern career, Muller continued banging in goals by the plenty, as he finished with 566 goals in all competitions in 15 years at the club. 365 of those were in the Bundesliga, which is still by a long shot the record for the league. In this time, Muller bagged 7 top scorer titles, including the 1971-72 season when he scored 40 in 34 games.
His impact on the Bundesliga is felt to this day, and he even appears regularly in their commercials.
