Bayern: A Savior and Collapse of German Football

Bayern Munich has won Germany’s last two Champions league trophies in 2001 and 2013. The quest for more success has seen them buy the star players of Dortmund a team that gave them great competition in the Bundesliga and represented Germany well in the Champions league.

This has led to sub-par performances exhibited by other German clubs in the Champions league.

In the space of six years, three different German sides played in the Champions league final. Borussia Dortmund played and won the 1997 Champions league title against Juventus. Bayern Munich played against Valencia and won the 2001 Champions league title which was followed by an appearance by Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions league final.

German football lost a great deal of its touch but was resuscitated after the 2006 FIFA World Cup which they hosted. Bayern has gone on to play in three finals losing two of them against Inter Milan in 2010 and Chelsea in 2012.

They played in an all-German final at Wembley in 2013 against Dortmund which they won and showed the extent to which the development of the German game has gone crowning it off with a win at the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.

After the world cup, Bayern’s purchases have all been to improve upon the depth of their squads leaving competing teams like Borussia Dortmund to fight for second spot in the league and as a result of this failing to make it to the Champions league group stage in between the seasons that followed.

Bayern's Acquisition of Top German Players

It all started with the purchase of Michael Ballack from Bayer Leverkusen. It was followed by the acquisition of MiroslavKlose from Werder Bremen and what has made the headlines is the acquisition of the whole Dortmund.

Mario Gotze was confirmed to have signed for Bayern Munich when he was on the bench for Dortmund at the 2013 Champions league final at Wembley.

The top scorer in the league Robert Lewandowski was also acquired by Bayern Munich to help them win the Champions league but they failed in semi-final matches to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

With Pep Guardiola’s reign as Bayern Munich’s manager coming to an end in 2016 and Carlo Ancelotti taken the reigns, Matt Hummels is another Dortmund player who has been confirmed as joining Bayern.

Every team rests on a great defender, a creative midfielder and a goal scorer. Bayern has gradually taken the core of Dortmund’s team and is now the only team that competes for Germany in the Champions league.

With Schalke and Borussia Dortmund fighting it off in the Gelsenkirchen Derby and Manuel Neuer making a move to Bayern five seasons ago, then it means that Bayern has bought Dortmund.

Spanish teams are reigning in the two biggest club tournaments in the world because they have vast options in Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, FC Barcelona and Sevilla. For now Germany has only one and therefore it is either Bayern Munich or nothing.