History of FC Bayern Munich - Beginning of The New Millennium

Beginning of The New Millennium

The next six years would be marked by enormous success. It was the time when Ottmar Hitzfeld succeeded 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 in 1999 Bayern won the league title, 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. Adding insult to injury, Bayern lost in a penalty shootout in the national cup final against Werder Bremen two weeks later. For Lothar Matthäus it was the second time that he missed a decisive penalty in a cup final.

In the next season Bremen saw Bayern take their revenge with a 3–0 victory 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 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 were the opponents: Bayern won both matches against the Castilians (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 backbone 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 of 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 quarter-final later winners Real Madrid prevailed with 3–2 aggregate win (2–1 0–2).The 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 that Hitzfeld should leave the club 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. In his first year in charge he steered the club to a 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. Since the move, Bayern has won most of their matches there, and the stadium was well received by the fans: 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."

For the 2006–07 season, Bayern thinned out their squad with Michael Ballack and Zé Roberto leaving the club (the Brazilian did not get along well with Magath), José Paolo Guerrero being sold to Bundesliga rivals Hamburger SV and Bixente Lizarazu and Jens Jeremies ending their careers. German international Lukas Podolski moved to Bayern after months of speculation 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 were toned down by the clubs officials, also reflecting their reluctance to spend extremely high sums on "superstar" players, despite the widespread opinion among observers that a new high profile playmaker was needed to replace Ballack. However, when Dutch star striker Ruud van Nistelrooy's ambitions to leave Manchester United became public, Uli Hoeneß expressed the intention to sign him for Bayern, ultimately failing to do so when van Nistelrooy chose to join Real Madrid. The very final day of the 2006 summer transfer period would still see Bayern making a major announcement as they picked up Dutch international Mark van Bommel who had fallen out of favor at FC Barcelona. Those calling for a real "number 10" were disappointed with this move, as van Bommel is a defensive midfield "worker" rather than a creative playmaker; nonetheless, his leadership qualities and uncompromising style of play would prove important for the team, eventually securing him the captain's armband after Oliver Kahn's retirement in 2008.

After an unconvincing first half of the season, Magath was sacked in January 2007 over fears of not qualifying for the following season's Champions League. He was replaced by Hitzfeld, returning for his second spell in charge. He was, despite his best efforts, not able to turn it around and qualify with Bayern Munich for the 2007–08 Champions League campaign, which "relegated" the Munich squad to the UEFA Cup, in which they had last played in the 1995–96 season. A 0–2 home defeat against AC Milan in the Champions League and a devastating 0–2 away defeat at later Bundesliga Champions VfB Stuttgart in particular caused the club officials to re-evaluate the team at hand that finished fourth in the Bundesliga; it was already stated well within the 2006–07 season that the following year's team would be drastically different.

Months before the season's end, Bayern started courting Werder Bremen's star forward Miroslav Klose without first talking to the club, greatly upsetting Bremen officials, who stated that they fully expected Klose to honor his contract that ran until 2008. Uli Hoeneß replied that if Bremen insisted on Klose playing another season with them, the transfer would definitely take place one year later. It was probably when it became apparent that Klose would be "the player that will join Bayern" for over a year if he stayed that Werder Bremen eventually agreed on the transfer for a purported sum of about 12 million euro.
Apart from Klose, the two most prominent signings for the 2007–08 season were Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni and French midfielder Franck Ribéry, with the latter transfer alone costing Bayern a club record fee of 25 million euro. Other prominent players to join the "new" Bayern for the 2007–2008 season were German internationals Marcell Jansen and Jan Schlaudraff. These five were completed by Argentinian youth international José Ernesto Sosa, Turkish international Hamit Altıntop (from Schalke 04) and the returning Zé Roberto for his second spell with the Reds after one year with FC Santos.
The other side of renewing the team was a number of notable players leaving the club. Owen Hargreaves was signed by Manchester United after Bayern had refused the transfer a year earlier. Claudio Pizarro and Roque Santa Cruz left for English clubs; Pizarro joined Chelsea FC, while Santa Cruz quickly rose to prominence at Blackburn Rovers, scoring 19 goals in his first Premier League season after 31 Bundesliga goals in eight years at Bayern. Roy Makaay moved to Feyenoord Rotterdam, seeing his starting team chances dwindle with the signings of Toni and Klose. Ali Karimi left the club after two seasons, while Andreas Görlitz was loaned to Karlsruher SC. With Hasan Salihamidzic and Mehmet Scholl, two players left the club who had played many years for Bayern Munich. Salihamidzic signed for Juventus, while Scholl ended his career at the age of 36, playing in the last match of the season and scoring his last goal. He would be given a farewell match before the start of the new season, when Bayern played against FC Barcelona for the "Franz Beckenbauer Cup".

The effort made would immediately prove fruitful in a successful Bundesliga campaign that saw Bayern dominating the league and exclusively occupying the top spot of the table throughout the whole season, only being defeated twice in 34 matches and setting a new Bundesliga record for least goals conceded at 21. They also completed another double as they defeated Borussia Dortmund in the cup final.
Pre-season top transfers Ribéry and Toni would also prove to be league's most influential players. Franck Ribéry was usually named the league's most technically gifted player and often seemed virtually unstoppable by the opposing defense lines; he scored 11 goals and 8 assists and was voted Germany's Footballer of the Year at the end of his first Bundesliga season. Luca Toni became the league's top scorer with 24 goals, scoring a total of 39 goals in 46 official matches. His popularity was further increased by achieving feats like scoring four goals in a 6–0 UEFA Cup win against Greek club Aris BC, a "perfect" hat-trick in a Bundesliga match against Hannover 96 and four braces within 10 days in a UEFA Cup match, two Bundesliga games and the domestic cup final. His strike partner Klose, however, played a disappointing season overall, starting very strong with eight goals in his first six matches and only two more for the rest of the season.

Bayern's "unwanted" (as the club aspires to play in the Champions League exclusively) UEFA Cup campaign saw mixed performances against teams clearly perceived as weaker (such as Bolton Wanderers, Belenenses or Getafe CF), but they managed to reach the semifinals where they were eliminated in a humiliating 0–4 away defeat to Russian champions and eventual cup winners Zenit St. Petersburg.

The 2008–09 season saw former Bayern star and German national coach Jürgen Klinsmann taking charge as the team's new coach, while long-term goalkeeper and captain Oliver Kahn ended his career. The team performed inconsistently in the domestic league while initially achieving strong results in its Champions League campaign: most notably, Bayern advanced to the quarterfinals after a record joint leg 12–1 victory over Sporting Lissabon. However, the next round saw Bayern's exit after a humiliating 0–4 defeat against eventual champions FC Barcelona. On the heels of a crucial Bundesliga loss against rival title contenders VfL Wolfsburg and in danger of missing a Champions League spot for the next season, Klinsmann was sacked and replaced with veteran coach Jupp Heynckes, who was brought back from retirement for the last remaining matches. Heynckes managed to win a string of games and eventually secured the second place for Bayern, but had no plans to stay at the club.

Prior to the 2009–10 season, Bayern made major changes to both the squad and the management, hiring Dutch coach Louis van Gaal and strikers Arjen Robben and Mario Gomez, with the latter purchase setting a new club record fee of € 30 million. Shortly before the end of the year, long-term manager Uli Hoeneß retired from that position and assumed the club's presidency. After a rocky start into the new season, the team began to pick up steam in late fall, defeating Juventus 4–1 in a make-or-break Champions League group stage match and steadily ascending in the Bundesliga. Led by a brilliant Robben who scored a string of crucial goals in all competitions, Bayern was eventually able to secure both domestic titles and advanced to the Champions League final in Madrid. While they were ultimately unable to overcome Inter, finishing as runners-up still meant that the 2009–10 season was Bayern's most successful in almost a decade.

After the team's highly successful run in previous year, the Bayern management deferred to van Gaal's assessment that no further transfers were needed in the run-up to the 2010-11 season. Some players who had already been transferred away on a loan basis the year before, like Luca Toni and José Sosa, were sold outright. Returnee Toni Kroos, who had also spent the last one-and-a-half years on loan at Bayer Leverkusen, was the only notable addition to the squad. Bayern again had to deal with a string of injuries that befell key players, most notably Robben, who missed the whole first leg of the season due to a harmstring injury that he had picked up when preparing for the 2010 World Cup with his national team. The team got off to a very poor start in the league, only scoring eight points out of the first seven Bundesliga games and quickly conceding a substantial lead to eventual champions Borussia Dortmund. Hampered by consistently weak showings of its defense, Bayern finished the first leg of the season in 5th place, 14 points behind Dortmund. The winter transfer period saw the addition of Luiz Gustavo (from Hoffenheim) against the departures of captain Mark van Bommel (to Milan) and central defender Martin Demichelis (to Málaga). While Bayern did much better during the season's second leg, scoring the most league points of all teams, Dortmund's lead would eventually prove insurmountable. At the European level, Bayern looked poised to take revenge on Inter Milan for their final loss the year before, but despite a 1-0 away victory, the team exited the competition after a 2-3 home loss. Having already agreed to terminate his contract at the end of the season, van Gaal was ultimately sacked outright on April 10. Former assistant coach Andries Jonker took over the team and managed to win the third place in the league, achieving the minimum aim of reaching a Champions League qualification spot.

In the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League, the team reached the final after eliminating Real Madrid in a penalty shoot-out at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.