Happy birthday, football god! Bastian Schweinsteiger turns 40 on 1 August. fcbayern.com offers its warmest wishes and looks back on unforgettable moments involving our former number 31.
The great Bastian Schweinsteiger liked to make himself small. It was the 11th minute of the 2013 Champions League final at Wembley, Borussia Dortmund against Bayern Munich. Bayern were under pressure like never before that season, acting hastily and unsure of themselves. Dortmund were playing their typical attacking football, winning many second balls, breaking at lightning speed and creating chances. Philipp Lahm headed a long clearance from Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller back into midfield somewhat uncontrollably. Schweinsteiger ran towards the ball, bent his knees as he received it, shifted his centre of gravity downwards, turned to the right against the direction of play with a half-pirouette and left three pressing Dortmund players standing. He then played a flat pass back to Dante and, almost for the first time in this match, enabled some organised build-up play.
It was an unspectacular scene. It didn’t lead to a goal or a scoring chance, it won't appear in any highlight reels on YouTube or discussions in the pub. And yet Schweinsteiger turned the match around with his trademark crouching half-pirouette (and a few more to follow). Bayern wriggled out of Dortmund's grip, found their controlled, calm style of play, and began to dominate. “After 20 minutes, we took control of the game,” Schweinsteiger would later say. “I never had the thought that it could go wrong again.”
Turning points in play and life
Those sentences express the experience and confidence of a long career. Schweinsteiger was born in 1984 and grew up in Oberaudorf in Upper Bavaria. In old video recordings, he can already be seen performing his typical half-pirouettes as a toddler. He was barely twice the size of the ball, which he kept close to his foot. Perhaps he perfected the turning movement while skiing, which he also learnt as a toddler. Bastian actually dreamed of a career in winter sports and beat Felix Neureuther several times, who later became one of the best slalom skiers in the world. Skiing also depends on precise body control, tilting and turning the hips, and a low centre of gravity.
Schweinsteiger joined the Bayern youth setup in 1994. In November 2002, at the age of 18, he played his first senior match. The club, Champions League winners a year and a half earlier, was at a low point, having endured the worst Champions League group stage in its history and failing to reach the round of 16. In the last, meaningless group game against Lens, in front of just 22,000 spectators in Munich's Olympiastadion, Schweinsteiger was subbed on in the 72nd minute. From then on, he was seen as a beacon of hope for German football, supposed to lead Bayern and the national team out of international insignificance. But Schweinsteiger struggled with injuries, form and his position on the pitch. Bayern coaches long deployed him on the wings. However, Schweinsteiger lacked the speed needed for that position.
He needed time to find his place - in life and on the pitch. After a few years in the suburb of Grünwald, he moved to the centre of Munich, where he finally felt at home. In 2009, Jupp Heynckes played him in central midfield for the first time during his five-game rescue mission. Under Louis van Gaal, Schweinsteiger became one of the best holding midfielders in the world. In 2010, Bayern reached the Champions League final but lost to Inter Milan. In 2012, in the final against Chelsea, Schweinsteiger hit the post with the decisive penalty, pulled his red shirt over his head and created the iconic image of probably the biggest defeat in Bayern's history.
Nevertheless, he was always an absolute fan favourite. When he announced his contract extension live in the stadium in 2010, the Südkurve cheered louder than after a big win.
Schweinsteiger didn’t dwell on his missed effort for long. And he didn’t lament the injustice of the fact that Chelsea, who had been thoroughly outclassed, were able to win the match. Instead, he soberly analysed matters: “We were far too hectic in our nature. It was completely atypical of what we had played before.” And that's exactly what the team didn’t want to happen again a year later at Wembley.
Master of time and space
Schweinsteiger was often criticised for his lack of speed. That had been noticed by Bayern scouts when they observed the young Bastian. In fact, his famous half-pirouettes were not very explosive. Most of the time, he didn’t even use them to gain attacking space. Schweinsteiger twisted and turned to escape the opponent's pressure in order to create time and space. It was striking how often he looked over his shoulder. Schweinsteiger said: “There’s no game in the world that is exactly the same. There are 22 people on the pitch, moving differently. When you read the game, you have to move your head a lot. You have to look left, right, front, back.”
Schweinsteiger substituted speed of movement with speed of thought, immediately registering where free spaces opened up for retreat or attack, and how his own movements stimulated the movements of his teammates and opponents. This created new options for building up play. Sometimes he initiated this with playing the ball out wide or through the centre. Schweinsteiger’s good distribution meant he very rarely finished the moves himself. Much more often, he would calmly shift the play into the opponent's half with short instep passes, where the others could then shine.
In the 2013 Champions League final, Schweinsteiger countered Dortmund's hectic, vertical, one-dimensional style with his controlled, rhythmic and humble style of play, which utilised the entire pitch. He interpreted the game as a libero, as a free man. He often dropped between the two centre-backs or to the left of them when building up play. But he also knew exactly when he could create an overload in midfield or when he needed to push further forward. He turned in and out, slowed down and accelerated, evaded, waited and attacked – a true master of time and space.
A picture-book Bavarian career
Bayern won the match 2-1 in 2013 to lift the Champions League for the first time since 2001. Arjen Robben was voted player of the match, but probably the most important man of the entire season was Schweinsteiger. His career reached its peak at Wembley of all places, one of the most iconic grounds in world football. One year later, Schweinsteiger led Germany to World Cup glory in Rio de Janeiro at another legendary location, the Maracana.
Few players from the club's youth ranks have had as much of an impact on Bayern as Schweinsteiger. A hero who had to go through many personal and sporting trials and experienced several turning points. A youngster who became a free, grown-up man, a global star from the idyllic Upper Bavarian countryside who retained his carefree attitude and always knew where he came from. “Long live Bayern!” shouted Schweinsteiger as he announced his contract extension at the Allianz Arena in 2010. The fans responded with: “Football god, football god!” And that's exactly what he was. The football god of small things.
Schweinsteiger was part of the legendary Wembley generation - watch the six-part documentary series with FC Bayern TV PLUS now:
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