Regular service has resumed in the Bundesliga, as Bayern Munich reclaimed the title they’d ceded to Bayer Leverkusen twelve months ago after holding it for eleven years prior. The snapping of that streak felt catastrophic twelve months ago, but going forward, may stand as little more than a blip on the historical radar.
Vincent Kompany’s appointment to mend the disaster – fresh off suffering relegation from the English Premier League with Burnley – raised eyebrows, but now appears an even-handed and businesslike decision to right the ship of one of football’s great institutions.
‘The people who picked him recognised that his idea of playing would fit Bayern a lot better than Burnley. I think it was very hard [there] to dominate, keep the ball, suffocate the opposition – very much in the mold of Pep Guardiola’, German football expert Raphael Honigstein told Box2Box.
‘You can say that to try that at Burnley was naive, or that a coach who knows what he wants to do is not changing, and if he doesn’t have the players to do it, needs to go somewhere else. Lucky for him Bayern gave him that chance, and it’s been such a turnaround.
‘Against the backdrop of a really highly charged political season at Bayern, with lots happening in the background at board level, a lot of intrigue and disagreement upstairs, Kompany has navigated things seemingly with ease, charm, charisma. To win back the title in his first season will go down as a very good season for him.’
That title means a long-awaited – and much discussed, mocked, memed – first trophy for Harry Kane, who has finally lifted silverware aged 31 after an exceptional 361 goals for Tottenham and Bayern combined, and 71 for England.
Moving from Spurs to Bayern seemed a sure-fire way to snap the drought, although their second-placed finish and loss in the German Super Cup final in his first season in Bavaria meant the football gods truly made him earn it.
But his reward has come, off the back of 25 league goals and nine assists (as part of a broader 80 goals in 91 appearances for the club), in a season where he also netted eleven times in the Champions League.
‘In Germany, it’s a difficult thing to say that people like to see Bayern players win something, because most of Germany don’t! But with him there’s perhaps a slight exception, that people have come to understand that here’s a guy who’s been really unlucky, or perhaps too loyal to a club he’d outgrown.
‘At Bayern there was always a chance he’d get over the hump, and finally he’s done it in his second season. It feels like some of the wrongs of the football world have been righted, and seen a real outpouring of happiness and satisfaction, that he’s been able to win at least one trophy.’
There’s been no-such trophy shortage for Thomas Müller. Sunday’s success was the thirteenth Bundesliga title of his career, along with six German Cups, eight Supercups, two Champions Leagues, two club World Cups, and the 2014 World Cup with Germany.
His 25-years at the club he joined as a 10-year old in 2000 now comes to a close, for now. Honigstein expects Muller to play elsewhere while he can, but for his heart to remain firmly in Munich, a club that remembers and respects its legends like few others.
‘Müller is synonymous with Bayern, and is now being increasingly mentioned in one breath with Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller – perhaps not in terms of football quality, but of overall impact, being representative of the club, he’s probably only third behind those two names.
‘That puts him ahead of Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Ribery, Robben, Paul Breitner, Karl-Heinze Rummenigge. He might go and play for a couple more years, there’s increasing talk of LAFC, a partner club of Bayern.
‘But beyond that there’s a strong expectation, a near certainty, that he’ll become once again an important figure in the mold of a Rummenigge of Hoeness, who as ex-players began to lead the club. Since 1979 Bayern, uniquely at this level, have always been run by former Bayern players, and Thomas Muller will [likely] become part of that chain, that history.’