1987 title win: FC Bayern replace Nürnberg as record champions

120 years of FC Bayern - that's 120 years full of triumphs, emotions and passion. On the occasion of the club’s 120th anniversary on 27 February, fcbayern.com looks back on significant moments in the history of the German record champions.

In the 1986/87 season, 22 years after being promoted to the Bundesliga, FC Bayern reached the next milestone in the club's history. By winning their tenth domestic championship, then coach Udo Lattek’s team replaced 1. FC Nürnberg as German record champions. One of the players who made history back then was current Bayern head coach Hansi Flick. fcbayern.com quizzed the Reds' 55-year-old boss.

The Interview with Hansi Flick

Herr Flick, in the 1986/87 season you won the German championship as an FC Bayern player. What are your memories of that season?
"It was the season after the World Cup in Mexico, and although a few of our players had been at the tournament we got off to a good start right away. We were the defending champions and therefore, of course, the hunted team. But in the end, we won the title pretty confidently."

That's right, after the last game you had a six-point lead over Hamburger SV and were even ten points ahead of Borussia Mönchengladbach. Can you remember a special or decisive match from that season?
(ponders) "It was all quite a while ago. I remember that we went to the top of the table shortly after the winter break (Editor's note: on Matchday 19 after a 3-0 win over Düsseldorf) and didn't give up the lead again until the end of the campaign. And I remember we only lost one game in the whole season. That was already very good back then."

For you personally, it was a second championship, but for FC Bayern it was the tenth overall title win and they replaced 1. FC Nürnberg as German record champions. What significance did this record have at that time within the team and the club?
"It was of course a topic, even though all these statistics and records didn't play as big a role back then as they do today. Everyone knew that we'd replace Nürnberg with the championship win. On the other hand, winning the title with a six-point lead didn't come out of the blue either. And we'd lost the European Cup final against Porto in Vienna shortly before, so that was still having a certain effect."

What marked out the team at the time?
"We had a good mixture of experienced players like Norbert Eder, Dieter Hoeneß, Jean-Marie Pfaff or Klaus Augenthaler. In addition, there were Lothar Matthäus, Andi Brehme, who arrived from Kaiserslautern that season, or Hansi Pflügler, who were all in their mid-20s and approaching the peak of their careers. Then there were the younger ones like Hans Dorfner, Wiggerl Kögl, Roland Wohlfahrt and me. All in all we had a good bunch of guys together."

Could you have imagined back then that you’d be working as a coach for FC Bayern over 30 years later?
"No, certainly not. I was 21 years old at the time and had just moved from Sandhausen to Munich a year earlier. My career as a player still lay ahead of me. The desire to work as a coach came much later."

You made history as a player with the record championship. As coach, you could make history again this season with an eighth straight title and Bayern's 30th overall...
(laughs) "That's true, but in the end these stats are not decisive. What's important is that we're in first place after the last matchday. If we succeed, I'll be as happy about winning the title as I was as a player back then."