FC Bayern coming:
It was 11th March,2008 when FC Bayern’s official website reported that FC Bayern will take on Mohun Bagan on may 27th,2008 in a friendly match as a part of their Asia tour.We the Indian Football fans were delighted to hear that news then.The Bayern team will be spearheaded by Captain fantastic Oliver Kahn who will be playing his 2nd last farewell match ending a prosperous career that existed for more than 25 years.Belgium International Daniel Van Buyten, Brazilian International Lucio,Ze Roberto,Argentine defender Martin Demechelis,,Sosa,German Andreas Ottl & the Dutch magician Mark Van Bommel will be playing in this match.Kolkata football fans will be missing the likes of Luca Toni, Franck Ribery, Miroslav Klose, Philip Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger,Lukas Podolski,Willy Sagnol & Hamit Altintop as they will be busy on chasing European glory for their country in UEFA Euro 2008.Mohun Bagan will be missing it fringe players like Baichung Bhutia & others as they will be called up for the national camp.Mohun Bagan will be managed by their assistant coach Satyajit Chatterjee for this match as their newly appointed Morrocan Coach Karim Bencherifa will take charge from June,2008.

Pele & Kolkata:
Its been 31 years since Kolkata saw a big team like Bayern playing in the city of joy. Though teams like Bochum,Sao Paulo,FC Santos(RSA) & junior teams of FC Bayern & AC Milan have visited the city.But it was last in 1977 when Pele & Newyork Cosmos came to the city to take on Mohun Bagan and the Result was a 2-2 draw thanks to two brilliant goals courtesy Shyam Thapa & Habib & some superb defending by Goutom”Beckenbauer” Sorkar did the trick for us.There was a time when Bagan led 2-1 but the Cosmos team which was spearheaded by then Brazilian Captain Alberto,Cinnalia,Miffin, Roth,Keith Eddie,Tonyfield helped their team to end the match on level terms.After the match Pele praised the courageous performances of the Bagan players.So we hope that with the visit of the Bavarian team on May 27th our football will boosted though not like China who will be hugely boosted Economically & Politically for hosting the Olympics,2008.

History in the Making:
Coming back to FC Bayern.Bayern Munich(nicknamed Die Bayern) was founded in 1900 by members of a Munich gymnastics club. The club played its first games in the regional Bayern league. Bayern’s first success came in 1926 in the form of the championship of southern Germany.Their first national honour was gained in 1932, winning the German championship by defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in the final.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, 21 national championships, and 14 German Cups.Bayern is a membership based club and with more than 140,000 members, the third largest in the world after SL Benfica and FC Barcelona. Bayern’s main local rival is TSV 1860 Munich.The rivalry has lost importance over the last decade as 1860 Munich has been relegated from the top divisions & struggled to come back to Bundesliga.The President of FC Bayern is the legendary Franz Beckenbauer.The Chairman of the executive board is Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, also a great former player of the club.Uli Hoeness is the general manager.of the club.Their home stadia is the Allianz Arena.
Players like Klinsmaan,Lothar Matthaus,Mario Basler,Scholl,Ballack, Owen Hargreaves,Kovac Brothers,Sebastian Diesler & many other great players have represented the club in the recent past years.In 2005 during the opening of the Allianz Arena the Club announced the results of its online poll for the “Bayern’s Greatest Ever” squad. 66,000 fans voted .
The Chosen squad:Sepp Maier(Gk). Defenders: Schwarzenbeck, Beckenbauer, Klaus Augenthaler,Paul Breitner.Midfielders:Stephan Effenberg,Mehmet Scholl,Lothar Matthaus.Forwards:Karl Heinz-Rummenigge,Gerd Muller & Giovane Elber.

Achievements:
In 1963 Bundesliga was introduced as the national league.Bayern gained promotion two years later, fielding a team with young talents like Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and Sepp Maier who would later be collectively referred to as “The Axis”. In their first Bundesliga season Bayern finished third and also won the German Cup.Next year they won European Cup Winners Cup against Scottish club Rangers, when Franz “the Bull” Roth scored the decider in a 1-0 extra time victory.In 1974 European Champions Cup final against Atlético Madrid, Bayern won 4-0 after a replay. In the following season the team defended their European title by defeating Leeds United in the final when Roth and Müller secured victory with their late goals. A year later in Glasgow, AS Saint-Étienne were defeated by another Franz Roth goal and Bayern became the third club to win the trophy in 3 consecutive years.They again won the Bundesliga title in 1980 and 1981.They had a prosperous time in the 80’s winning domestic titles mostly.When Franz Beckenbauer took over for the 2nd half of 1993-94 season, winning the Bundesliga again after a 3 year gap.He also led the team to victory in the 1996 UEFA Cup, beating Bordeaux in the final.From 1998-2004 Bayern were coached by Ottmar Hitzfeld, who became the most successful Bayern coach of all time. In Hitzfeld’s first stint as Bayern Manager he won 4 Bundesliga titles, 2 German Cups,1 Champions league & 1 Intercontinental title and came agonisingly close to winning the Champions League in 1999, losing 2-1 to Manchester United.Bayern’s most important victory came under his reign when they won the Champions League for the fourth time after a 25 year gap, defeating Valencia on penalties.

Season 2007-2008:
Ottomar “the general” Hitzfeld returned as manager in Season 2007 after the clubs dismal performance previous season under Felix Magath who was sacked.They fielded a destructive team with the likes of Captain Oliver Kahn,Luca Toni, Franck Ribery,Miroslav Klose,Philip Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger,Lukas Podolski,Willy Sagnol, Daniel Van Buyten, Lucio,Ze Roberto, Martin Demechelis,Hamit Altintop,Sosa, Andreas Ottl,Mark Van Bommel,Christian Lell & others.They gave a commanding performance throughout the season winning the German Cup,German Bundesliga but missed out a chance to score the treble when they lost to Dick Advocaat’s Zenit St.Petersburg in the UEFA Cup Semi-Final.The season marked the end of team’s goalkeeper & Captain Oliver Kahn & also for manager Ottomar Hitzfeld who will be leaving the club at the end of the season and will become the manager of Switzerland from July,2008.He will replaced by the former player of the club & the former manager of German National side Juergen Klinsmaan.

Oliver Kahn:
Our feature on Bayern Munich cannot be completed without giving a special mention for “The Titan”. He started his career at Karlsruher SC and in 1994 was transferred to FC Bayern Munich.He is one of the most successful German players in recent history, having won seven German championships, six German cups, the UEFA Cup (1996), the UEFA Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup (both 2001). His individual contributions have earned him four consecutive UEFA Best European Goalkeeper awards and two German “Footballer of the Year” trophies. He played for the German national team from 1994 to 2006,where he was starting goalkeeper of the 2002 World Cup squad which reached the Finals. He won the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball for his performance.In 2006 Fifa World Cup he played only one match against Portugal for 3rd place play off & helped the team to finish 3rd in the competition.

Sources:Official website of FC Bayern,Mohun Bagan & Wikipedia.