Bayern Munich

FC Bayern Munich are a German sports club based in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. Bayern Munich is one of the most successful clubs in football history. With 2 Intercontinental Cups, 4 European Champions League titles, 1 UEFA Cup title, 1 Cup Winners' Cup title, 20 national championships, and 13 German Cups, Bayern Munich is Germany's foremost football club. Bayern is a membership based club with more than 132,000 members.

Eleven football visionaries met to form FC Bayern in the Gisela Restaurant in Munich on the night of 27th February 1900 led by Franz John. These were gymnasts who split from their original club Münchner TurnVerein 1879 which had suppressed every attempt by the footballers at independence. Also, Bayern's first victory was a 7-1 victory in their first match against their former team, MTV 1879. Not in his wildest dreams could Franz John then have imagined that his team would one day be German champions, European Cup Champions and even World Club Championship winners.

The rise of Bayern started immediately. Their first peak came in 1910, when the team became Eastern Region Champions. In 1926, the team won the South German championship and in 1932 achieved its first national title, defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0. The rise of Hitler put an abrupt end to Bayern's development. The president and the coach, both of whom were Jewish, left the country. In the following years, Bayern, taunted as the "Jew's club", decayed into irrelevance until the endo of World War II. After the war, German football needed its own period of recovery. It would be nine years before real euphoria broke out again, when the German national team returned triumphant from the World Cup in Switzerland. Bayern faced disappointment in 1963, when they were not allowed to play in the newly established Bundesliga, but two years later FC Bayern stormed the so-called upper house of German football, led by Croatian coach Zlatko "Tschik" Cajkovski. The club entered a period of development, which saw the emergence of Franz Beckenbauer and other great names in it's history. 1967 saw the Bavarians conquer their first European trophy. A 1-0 victory against Glasgow Rangers and The European Cup Winners' Cup belonged to the Bavarians, but slow overall progress saw a new coach Branko Zebec take over. He achieved the first league and cup double in Bundesliga history, using only 13 players throughout the season. The zenith was the triumph in the 1974 European Champions Cup final under coach Udo Lattek. In the following season the team defended their European title and a year later in Glasgow, Bayern became the third club to win the trophy in 3 consecutive years. The final trophy won by Bayern in this era was the Intercontinental Cup.

The end of the 70s and 1980s were a period of turmoil for Bayern, with many changes in personnel and financial problems. In 1988, Jupp Heynckes arrived to take on the task of building a new team. when Germany became world champions again in 1990, the team included six Bayern players. The 90s were a period of rise which ended with a defeat in the 1999 Champions Cup finals when a 1:0 lead disapered in a metter of minutes. Two years latter Bayern won the Champions League again after a victory over Valencia.

Many famous players wore the jersey of Bayern Munich throughout its long and glorious history. Names like Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Sepp Maier, Lothar Matthaus, Giovanne Elber...

Franz Anton Beckenbauer was born September 11, 1945. He is a German football coach, manager, and former player, nicknamed Der Kaiser ("the emperor") because of his elegant style, his leadership qualities, his first name "Franz" (reminiscent of the Austrian emperors called Francis in English), and his dominance on the football pitch. He is regarded as the greatest German footballer of all time and also as one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game.

The year 1958 was the beginning of a football career unparalleled to this day. More than 40 years later, Beckenbauer and Bayern still belong together like no other before or since. He was part of the team promoted to the Bundesliga in 1965, and a succession of honours quickly followed: four German championships (1969, 1972-74), four Cup winners' medals (1966, 1967, 1969, 1971), three European Cup triumphs (1974-76), the Cup Winners' Cup (1967), and the World Club Cup (1976). After 396 Bundesliga appearances and 44 goals, he finally left Bayern in 1977, to play out his career in the USA with the New York Cosmos.

It was in the job of a coach that he chalked up another outstanding achievement: having won the World Cup in 1974 as a player, he secured the game's highest honour a second time in 1990, this time as coach of Germany. After that, he returned home to Bayern. From 28 December 1993 until 30 June 1994, and then from 29 April 1996 until 30 June of the same year, he coached Germany's most successful club side. His brief spells in charge saw him collect two further honours - the Bundesliga title in 1994 and the UEFA Cup in 1996. In 1994 he had taken on the role of club president at Bayern.

Only one striker has run up 40 goals in a single Bundesliga season and it was Gerd Müller, who in 1972 set the league record which stands to this day. He was the league's leading scorer on no less than seven occasions: 1967,1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1978. He was Europe's top scorer twice (1970, 1972), German Footballer of the year twice (1967, 1969) and was voted European Footballer of the year in 1970.

Coach Zlatko Cajkovski was a proponent of a modern attacking style and recognized his talent. "Short, fat Müller", as the coach liked to call his protege, had an unparalleled talent for scoring goals. He elevated his trade to the brink of perfection. The way he took his chances has been described as unforgettable. Gerd Müller became a synonym for the ideal penalty-box striker, enough to give opposing goalkeepers everywhere a panic attack. In 427 Bundesliga appearances for Bayern he scored 365 goals - a record that no one anywhere in the world has been able to match.

Gerd Müller left Munich in 1979 and played a final season with Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the USA. He returned to Bayern in 1992 and has been employed as a youth and amateur coach since that time.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was born on September 25th, 1955 in Lippstadt, a small town near Dortmund in Germany. He played with great success in Bayern Munich. He won the Intercontinental Cup, the European Cup, two league titles and two cups during his time with the team. Rummenigge also won the 1980 European Championship with the German national team and was part of the squad that finished second behind Italy in the 1982 World Cup and behind Argentina at the 1986 World Cup. He was also honoured as European Footballer of the Year two times in a row, in 1980 and 1981.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge played football in four different teams during his playing career: Borussia Lippstadt, Bayern Munich, Internazionale Milan and Servette FC Genève. He played in over 400 games and scored over 200 goals for these teams, while his international record for the German national team is 45 goals in 95 games.

The 66,000 capacity Allianz Arena, set to host the Opening Match of the 2006 World Cup, is reckoned to be Europe's most modern stadium.

Allianz Arena offers three day-care centers, two fan shops, the FC Bayern München Megastore and the TSV 1860 München Megastore. Numerous restaurants and fast food establishments are also located around the stadium.

There are four team locker rooms (one each for the two home teams and their respective opponents), four coaches' locker rooms and two locker rooms for referees. Two areas are provided where athletes can warm up. There are also 550 toilets and 190 monitors in the arena.

The exterior provides its most extraordinary feature! Allianza Arena is lit up in red when Bayern Munich play, in blue when 1860 Munich play and in white when in use by the German National Team.