FC Bayern Forum

40. Bayern Munich 1984-90

Points: 840

Thanks to performances at the World Cups of 1982 and 1986, German football earned a somewhat deserved reputation for joyless persistence throughout the decade. Unsurprisingly, the national team consisted of a core of Bayern Munich players such as Lothar Matthaus and Olaf Thon. Even less surprisingly, that Bayern team earned a similar reputation within Germany.

As Rudi Voller honed in on goal and the effective people’s champions Werder Bremen honed in on the title at Bayern’s old Olimpiastadion on 23 November 1985, Klaus Augenthaler did the only he could. He took Voller out. And not just out of that run. Out of the season. Voller missed all but two more games in that campaign while Bayern won the match and, eventually, the title.

Whatever about their winning-at-all-costs approach though, the point is Bayern were also winning. In fact, their total of four titles in five years – including a three-in-a-row and a double – represented the most extensive spell of dominance in Bundesliga history. They also did it with some of the best defensive records in history.

What’s more, their quality extended beyond the domestic game. In that, this wasn’t quite the same as Manchester United’s monopoly of the Premier League in the mid-90s, when they’d win multiple titles but toil in Europe. That Bayern team never went out before the last eight in any continental competition and got to the final of the 1987 European Cup. Their arrogance arguably cost them in that trophy, but it also brought the Bundesliga’s most suffocating spell of success.

Trophies won: German league 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990; German Cup 1986; European Cup runners-up 1987
Managers: Udo Lattek, Jupp Heynckes
Best XI: Pfaff; Nachtweih, Brehme, Augenthaler, Pflugler, Thon; Dorfner, Matthaus; Hoeness, Kogl

15. Bayern Munich 1998-2003

Points: 1055

Most people will, of course, only remember the shattering way in which they lost the 1999 final. In truth though, Bayern showed a rare resolve by recovering from the trauma of Camp Nou to reach and win another final, thereby surpassing the United side that beat them.

Indeed, they illustrated how many ghosts they had exorcised with the manner they claimed the Bundesliga that same 2000-01 season. With Schalke having won 5-3 and already celebrating at Unterhaching, Bayern were awarded an indirect free-kick for the very last action of the game as they trailed 1-0 at Hamburg. A point would have done them. So Stefan Effenberg made his own. Nonchalantly, he muttered to Patrick Andersson “Knock it in, and then we’ll go home”. The Swede did just that. Four days later, a penalty shoot-out win over Valencia brought the Champions League back to Bayern for the first time in 25 years.

As well as that European Cup, Bayern also won four out of five titles and a domestic double. Like many of the best German teams of this era, their success was based on a disciplined squad of few stars but a fantastic manager in Ottmar Hitfzeld.

In the end, it was arguably the domestic game which finished them. With the German league unable to compete financially at this point, it took Bayern another nine years to be able to compete on the pitch.

Trophies won: Champions League 2001; German league 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003; German Cup 2000, 2003; Champions League runners-up 1999
Managers: Ottmar Hitzfeld
Best XI: Kahn; Sagnol, Lizerazu, Linke, Andersson, Kuffour; Jeremies, Effenberg; Scholl, Basler, Elber

5. Bayern Munich 1971-76

Points: 1260

The team that created the Bayern myth. But not just in terms of relentless domination. Also the infamous concept of Bayern-Dusel – luck.

Because, despite offering Germany’s answer to Total Football, this team was never quite as convincing as their magnificent achievements inferred. To a greater degree than many of the other great teams, they were a curious mix of fearsomeness and fortune.

Admittedly, there was an awful lot of fearsomeness. For a start, despite the fact that their great rivals Borussia Monchengladbach were routinely considered the more entertaining team, Bayern always outscored them. Gerd Muller, meanwhile, outscored most teams in Europe on his own. It was throughout this period he set a record by scoring 55 goals in a season.

That also helped Bayern set a Bundesliga record for the most points per game. It came in the midst of three titles in a row, with that achievement overlapped by Europe’s gold-standard feat: three European Cups in a row.

But it was also in that golden era of 1973-76, that they most profited from fortune. First off, they were lucky that the Ajax team who had demolished them 4-0 in the 1972-73 season had broken up so dramatically. And, in the following season’s final, they were a minute way from defeat to Atletico Madrid until Georg Schwarzenbeck – a defender who scored about a goal a season – swept home an unlikely equaliser. Bayern did pummel Atletico in the replay (the European Cup’s only one), but signs of decline were there.

In the following season they only finished 10th in the Bundesliga before benefitting from a very controversial offside call in the final against Leeds. And in 1976 they repeatedly benefited from the width of the woodwork as Saint Etienne squandered a series of opportunities.

To give Bayern their due though, they rarely did the same.

Trophies won: European Cup 1974, 1975, 1976; German league 1972, 1973, 1974
Managers: Udo Lattek, Dettmar Cramer
Best XI: Maier; Hansen, Schwarzenbeck, Beckenbauer, Breitner; Roth, Zobel, Hoeness, Rummenigge, Muller, Kapellmann