With 2023 at an end, it's time to look back over some eventful months. We've picked out the highlights concerning the FC Bayern first team and present you with the photos of the year. Stunning goals, new faces or big wins – there's something for everyone in our selection.
1. Bayern stop PSG attack
There was a clash of two absolute football giants in the Champions League round of 16 in early March. FC Bayern against Paris Saint-Germain – the squads packed with stars, the ambitions as high as they can be. But when certain chants rang out from the stands in the 86th minute of the second leg at the Allianz Arena, it was clear who was the better team this season. "Super Bayern, super Bayern – hey, hey!" sang the fans at the top of their voices after the 2-0 win, and the team linked arms and joined in with them after the final whistle. After the 1-0 victory in the first leg in the French capital, FCB sealed their spot in the quarter-finals thanks to second-half goals from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Serge Gnabry in the second leg.
2. Tuchel's winning debut
"Only FCB will be German champions" reverberated around the Allianz Arena at full time as the players celebrated with the supporters. Bayern won 4-2 in the top-of-the-table clash against Borussia Dortmund on 1 April and regained top spot in the Bundesliga table. The coach and players were in suitably cheerful spirits afterwards. "Overall it was a very good start with a win. That will give us confidence and desire to improve," said Thomas Tuchel after his first match in charge of the German record champions. Tuchel had replaced Julian Nagelsmann at the helm on 24 March.
3. Knocked out by eventual UCL winners
The scarves were waved in the air once again in the Südkurve. The players stood in front of them and applauded, thanking them for the support they'd been given by the fans on this Wednesday night. "The crowd showed after the game that they saw how much effort we put in and how much we tried to turn the tide," noted Thomas Müller afterwards. Everyone, from the players to the supporters in the stands, gave everything in the 1-1 draw against Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-final second leg. It wasn't enough to pull off a miracle on the night. Despite Joshua Kimmich cancelling out Erling Haaland's opening goal, the 3-0 result from the first match was a bridge too far and Bayern exited the competition at the hands of the eventual winners.
4. Musiala's goal for the ages
Sure, it wasn't all plain sailing in the 2022/23 season, but one moment from Jamal Musiala in the 89th minute on 27 May was enough for a happy ending on Matchday 34 and an 11th successive league title. And for joy, celebration and great relief. Just how good that really felt, how valuable the title was for every single player at FC Bayern, was written all over the players' faces when they were presented with the trophy on the pitch after the 2-1 away win at 1 FC Köln thanks to Musiala's decisive goal.
5. With Musiala and Davies on the Audi Summer Tour
As well as arduous training sessions, high-quality friendlies and numerous meetings with local fans, Tuchel and his squad also saw some of the sights in Tokyo and Singapore during this year's Audi Summer Tour from 27 July to 3 August. While Konrad Laimer dined at a traditional ramen restaurant, Musiala and Alphonso Davies paid a visit to the world-famous Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. During their discovery tour of the 101-hectare grounds, the pair naturally didn't miss the opportunity to snap a photo or two among the magical illuminations under the night sky.
6. Bayern's new number 9
The fans couldn't stay in their seats. On 12 August the noise suddenly grew loud. Very loud. Phones were held aloft, the moment captured on video. At the centre of it all: Harry Kane. The English striker, our new number nine, the new signing from Tottenham Hotspur, was brought on in the 64th minute of the DFL-Supercup against RB Leipzig with his new team 2-0 down, and was finally a real FC Bayern player. Despite it ending in a 3-0 defeat, the delirium around Kane was huge.
The captain of the English national team and one of the best strikers in Premier League history moved to Bayern in early August. He's two-footed, an outstanding finisher and great in the air. At 1.88 metres tall, the 30-year-old is a model athlete and also possesses an unmatched goalscoring instinct. Last season alone, he netted 30 goals in 38 league games for Tottenham. And the likeable forward was to also show this goal threat from the start in an FCB shirt...
7. Traditional Oktoberfest visit
One day after the thumping 7-0 win at home to VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga, a traditional event was on the agenda for the players, coaching staff and management on 24 September. On the second Sunday of Oktoberfest, the Bavarians and their families – of course dressed in garb – gathered on Theresienwiese for the club's annual visit to the famous Munich folk festival. The atmosphere was excellent as Müller and Co were able to toast two seven-goal spectacles against Bochum and during the week against Manchester United (4-3) in the Champions League, as well as a good start in the Bundesliga with 13 points and 18 goals from the first five games. "Today we can sit at the table with a relaxed grin and just enjoy the moment," said veteran Müller.
8. Eight goals, Kane wonder strike and Neuer comeback
It was a goal for the history books. In the 69th minute of Bayern's 8-0 thrashing of SV Darmstadt 98 on Matchday 9, Kane just went for it from over 50 metres. "I thought to myself, why not have a go?" described the 30-year-old. "When the ball was in the air, I was just praying that it would drop under the bar. And luckily it did." Yet that wasn't the only story of the afternoon of 28 October.
Around 40 minutes before kick-off, Manuel Neuer stepped onto the Allianz Arena turf for the warm-up – to great applause from the fans in the stadium. Exactly 350 days after his last competitive game for the German record champions, Neuer, who'd been sidelined by a lower leg fracture, was getting ready for his comeback between the posts. But around two and a half hours later, it seemed to everyone watching as if the FCB No. 1 had never been away. "I was positively excited and in some anticipation of what was going to happen out there. I was just really excited to be back at the Allianz Arena, to play in front of my own fans and to be on the pitch with the team,” the goalkeeper said after full-time. The captain is back!
9. Big statement against BVB
From the first whistle in Dortmund on 4 November, Bayern left no trace of doubt about who would come out on top in the battle between BVB and FCB. The Reds produced a brilliant, resolute team performance. The record champions were already 2-0 up by the ninth minute thanks to goals from Dayot Upamecano and Kane. Even in the second half, as Dortmund went all in with the backing of their loud fans, the Munich men kept cool heads. Kane killed off the contest with his second goal in the 72nd minute and even completed a hat-trick to make it 4-0 in added time. At Borussia Dortmund! What a display!
10. UCL group stage ends at Old Trafford - with record
Bayern marched through the Champions League group stage with five wins and a draw. The Munich men were therefore all smiles after the hard-fought 1-0 victory at Manchester United in the final group game on 12 December. "Overall, we're happy with how the group stage went," said Kane. Captain Neuer, meanwhile, called on his teammates with a view to the knockout stages: "We can achieve everything with this team, but we have to give it our best every time."
The team performance also enabled the six-time Champions League winners to extend a unique streak: after the gritty display at the Theatre of Dreams, FCB are now unbeaten in 40 group stage games in Europe's elite club competition (36 wins, four draws). A record, of course. Tuchel's men showed what they're capable of against United, Galatasaray and Copenhagen. In the last 16 against Lazio, it's about backing that up.
11. Club legends extend contracts
Bayern will see through next year with their goalkeeping team! On 28 December, the German record champions announced contract extensions for Neuer and Sven Ulreich until summer 2025, meaning continuity in such an important position and a line-up that's second to none. Neuer and Ulreich have been Bayern's goalkeeping duo since 2015, save for a brief interruption in the 2020/21 season. "We get on very well as people, also off the pitch," said Neuer after signing his new contract. "What Ulle has done for the club since 2015, and also how he's supported me, is phenomenal. Our relationship is unique."
Then on 19 December, the club did the same with a man who's not only a poster child for Bayern, but also for German football. The talk is, of course, of the one and only Thomas Müller, who also signed a one-year contract extension. The number 25 will remain a Red until 2025 at least!
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