This summer, the European champions will be determined for the 16th time, with 14 FC Bayern professionals taking part in the tournament. A look at the past shows that the German record champions have often been involved in Euro wins. During their time in Munich, no fewer than 17 players have lifted the Henri Delaunay trophy, which will be up for grabs again when the tournament kicks off on Friday. In part 2 we look back at the tournaments in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
1992: Victorious successors
Only a political decision cleared the way for Denmark to participate in the European Championship finals in 1992 - and they sprange one of the biggest sensations in football. Yugoslavia were excluded because of the civil war in the Balkans, so the Danes moved up - and with Bayern's Brian Laudrup they became feared opposition, nicknamed "Danish Dynamite".
Nobody had great expectations. Laudrup, for example, had booked a flight to the USA - four days before the end of the tournament. He had to cancel it because he was in the final against Germany. Before then, Denmark had only achieved one win in regular time, but that evening in Gothenburg they scored two goals in the 90 minutes. Laudrup - nicknamed "Prince of Denmark" - was in the starting line-up and celebrated over his Bayern colleagues in Berti Vogts' DFB team. "Laudrup triumphs in duel with friend Stefan Effenberg" was a later headline in Bayern's "Club News". It was one of the last mentions for the man who played 62 competitive games for FC Bayern from 1990 to 1992. After becoming European champion, he did not compete again for FCB. From the sidelines of the Euros, he announced his departure to Florence.
1996: The star was the team
For the first time, 16 teams took part in a European championship - and this created a personnel problem for the German squad. Germany's Wembley glory - the golden goal by Oliver Bierhoff - seems even more special when you look at it under these circumstances. A curious note on this topic: Because Berti Vogts' team was so stretched, Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, like Oliver Reck, received an outfield player's jersey before the final against the Czech Republic. Vogts needed almost the entire squad for the third German Euro triumph. The sentence "The star is the team" has rarely been as fitting as it was from 8-30 June 1996.
Seven FCB players were in the squad, and they all had their share in the victory, they were all important components on the rocky road to the title. Only Oliver Kahn, at that time still in the shadow of regular goalkeeper Andreas Köpke, failed to feature in a match. The "Titan", later three times world goalkeeper and a rock for Bayern in 632 competitive games, provided active support from the bench. And he saw how his Munich team-mate Jürgen Klinsmann led the side as captain. In the semi-final against hosts England, the striker suffered the "only muscle injury of my career", but he was fit again for the final. He played for 95 minutes and drove the game - until Bierhoff scored.
The modern libero Matthias Sammer, penalty stopper Köpke and Klinsmann, who went on to stay in Munich for another year (84 games / 48 goals): there were influential figures in this team, without the workers such as Thomas Helmer (68 international matches / 246 Bayern games) but it had not won a title. The central defender, who was captain for two years during his 1992-1999 spell in Munich, only missed ten minutes of the tournament, and Markus Babbel (51/261) was another key player in England after Jürgen Kohler's injury. Bayern's home-grown man was at the beginning of his international career in 1996 - in the end he played 51 games. In the Wembley final, he played alongside Thomas Strunz (41/220), who was on the left wing. The two knew each other very well from Munich - another recipe for success.
Christian Ziege had a full 600 minutes in his legs at the end, he excelled as a left-back, worked hard, never gave up. Even back then you could see he was a reliable asset: Between 1996 and 2004, Ziege (72 international matches / 227 for FC Bayern) was in the squad at every Euro and World Cup tournment. In the final in England he set up Bierhoff's first goal. So he was just as involved in the brace of today's DFB director as, in a way, Mehmet Scholl (36/469). Scholl left the field in the 69th minute and made room for the man of the evening. The Bayern star was not a regular for Germany, but was started in England from the quarter-finals onwards. His skills as a tricky midfielder were in demand - just like at FC Bayern.
2000: Title collector Liza
When the two decisive goals were scored in the 2000 European Championship final, Bixente Lizarazu was no longer on the field. However, this does not diminish the share of the French Bayern star in the European victory for his home country. The left-back was on the pitch four times on the way to the title two years after winning the World Cup, including in the final against Italy in Rotterdam. But he went off in the 86th minute, eight minutes before the equaliser to make it 1-1 and 17 minutes before the golden goal by David Trezeguet. Although Germany were eliminated from the tournament in Belgium and the Netherlands at the bottom of their group, Bayern had a champion to celebrate. And a man in the squad who knew how to win titles: A year later, Lizarazu (273 competitive games for Bayern) triumphed with FCB in the Champions League.
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