FC Bayern loanees who (have) made a career for themselves

Frans Krätzig is about to be reunited with an old acquaintance on the Swabian Alb mountain range. In addition to the 21-year-old left-back, whose loan to 1. FC Heidenheim was confirmed on Friday, attacking midfielder Paul Wanner is also currently on loan at the Bundesliga club. Both Bayern players already know each other from their days together at the German record champions' Campus. "A loan is a good option to give our talents the opportunity to gain match practice at a high level and ultimately make their way into professional football in the long term," FC Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund said about loan deals at the start of the season. The Munich club currently has 22 players out on loan at various clubs in Europe.

What players like Krätzig, Wanner, Alexander Nübel or Bryan Zaragoza currently are, Philipp Lahm, David Alaba - or Uli Hoeneß once were. fcbayern.com gives you an overview of past loan deals and their success stories.

The honorary president leads the way

One of the first players to be loaned out in the history of FC Bayern was someone who would later broker several similar deals as general manager. We're talking about the current honorary president of the Munich club, Uli Hoeneß. As a lightning-quick winger, the Ulm-born player won the European Cup three times as well as the World Cup and European Championship trophies once each. Before Hoeneß was forced to end his illustrious career after scoring 86 goals in 239 Bundesliga games for the Reds due to a lengthy knee injury at the age of 27, he had a spell on loan at 1. FC Nürnberg in the 1978/79 season. Due to his injury, Hoeneß hadn't played under the then Bayern coach Gyula Lorant.

Hoeneß, Dorfner, Schwabl und Kuffour to Nürnberg

If you look back at the players loaned out by FC Bayern, it's striking that apart from the legendary Hoeneß, only a few players went out on loan until the turn of the millennium. Attacking midfielder Hans Dorfner was also loaned out to Nürnberg at the start of the 1984/85 season, where the plan was for the then 18-year-old talent to gain match practice - similar to today. At FCB, greats such as Lothar Matthäus and Michael Rummenigge were esteblished in his position. Dorfner stayed with the 'Club' for two years and then returned to Säbener Straße, scoring 20 goals and providing 20 assists in 142 games for FC Bayern. Home-grown talent Manfred Schwabl also moved to FCN on loan in January 1993, before the midfielder made the move to Franconia permanent the following summer.

While Hoeneß and Schwabl took up the loan option towards the end of their careers, Markus Babbel and Sammy Kuffour did it as talented youngsters, gaining experience while fresh out of the FCB youth setup. Munich-born Babbel (19 years old at the time) went on loan to Hamburger SV for two seasons in the summer of 1992. His fellow defender Kuffour also played for 1. FC Nürnberg as a 19-year-old in the 1995/96 season, then returned and won the Champions League and the World Cup, among other honours, in 277 appearances for his beloved FC Bayern.

Following the turn of the millennium: Lahm, Hummels, Kroos

Philipp Lahm's move to VfB Stuttgart for two years at the start of the 2003/04 season is still regarded as a prime example of a successful loan. In Munich, the French pair of Bixente Lizarazu and Willy Sagnol were established in the full-back positions and so the Munich-born player took the plunge and moved to Stuttgart. At VfB, Lahm established himself as an absolute first-choice player - also in the Champions League - and returned to FCB in 2005 as a seasoned Bundesliga player. The rest is history: World Cup and CL winner Lahm is still regarded as one of the world's best full-backs of all time.

Like Lahm, Mats Hummels and Toni Kroos not only became World Cup winners with Germany in Brazil in 2014, but also learned their trade at FC Bayern. Kroos exploded onto the scene while on loan at Bayer 04 Leverkusen (January 2009 to summer 2010) under coach Jupp Heynckes, while Hummels impressed so much during his one-and-a-half-year loan at Borussia Dortmund from January 2008 that BVB signed him permanently in the summer of 2009.

Prime example Lahm followed by prime example Alaba

Just like Toni Kroos, David Alaba moved to Real Madrid in the summer of 2021 after his extremely successful period at FC Bayern. Prior to his outstanding career in the professional game, the Austrian also took the invaluable interim step of going out on loan - and played for TSG Hoffenheim from January to June 2011. "The six-month loan from Bayern to Hoffenheim was an important step in my career. I played in all 17 games in the Rückrunde, which was very, very good for my development at the time," said Alaba about his spell in the Kraichgau region. After his return to FCB, things came thick and fast for the young left-back, who together with Franck Ribéry characterised an era on the left wing: the 2012 Finale dahoam was followed by the much longed-for treble win in 2013.

In addition to Alaba's meteoric rise, the loan spells of Serge Gnabry (2017/18 TSG Hoffenheim), Marco Friedl (2018/19 Werder Bremen), Chris Richards (February 2021 - June 2022 TSG Hoffenheim), Joshua Zirkzee (second half of 2020/21 Parma; 2021/22 Anderlecht), Malik Tillman (2022/23 Glasgow Rangers; 2023/24 PSV Eindhoven) and Josip Stanišić (2023/24 Bayer 04 Leverkusen) in particular have proved to be extremely successful since 2010. Krätzig, Wanner & Co. are now aiming to undergo a similar development at their current clubs, while FC Bayern will continue to support them closely.

We use the Loan Watch format to track FC Bayern's current loan players: