© Bernd Ducke
2025 has begun – and with it the prospect of many footballing highlights over the coming 12 months. fcbayern.com has picked out a few events that fans of the German record champions should have marked.
11 January: Hunt for the lost trophy resumes
Bayern are sitting in first place in the Bundesliga over the winter break and go into the remaining 19 matchdays of the title race in pole position. Having lost the title last season after 11 consecutive championships, the Munich men are particularly fired up to reassert their status as record champions this year. "My wish is that we're standing on Marienplatz in the summer with at least one trophy in our hands," answered board member for sport Max Eberl when asked about his best possible Christmas presents, probably speaking on behalf of all Bayern fans. The starting gun will be fired on 11 January with the away match at Borussia Mönchengladbach, befre the season finishes with the trip to TSG Hoffenheim on 17 May. At that point, Vincent Kompany's side will hopefully have, like they did at the end of the year, 17 teams behind them...
The Meisterschale had made a home for itself at the Allianz Arena over the years - Bayern want to bring it back in 2025. | © Getty
27 February: 125 years of FC Bayern
It all began with 17 rebels who wanted to create a club according to their own ideas in Munich's Café Gisela – and it became a unique success story. With 382,000 members, FC Bayern Munich is now the largest sports club in the world and one of the most successful, having won numerous titles. Despite its great history, FCB has always remained "Bavarian, down-to-earth, approachable – one big family", as president Herbert Hainer recently described it at the annual general meeting. The 27th February marks the 125th anniversary of the club's founding. Naturally, this must be celebrated! Fans and members can look forward to great events and celebrations to mark the anniversary.
A document with a long history: the founding charter of FC Bayern Munich dated 27 February 1900 - today it can be admired in the club museum. | © FC Bayern
17 March: Legends teams in Beckenbauer Cup
A World Cup and treble winner like Philipp Lahm is even making his debut in the dugout for this event: as part of the 125-year celebrations, FC Bayern will stage a one-off legends tournament on 17 March 2025 in honour of its late honorary president Franz Beckenbauer. Taking part will be the legends teams from Real Madrid, AC Milan Glorie, Borussia Dortmund, VfB Stuttgart – and of course the FC Bayern Legends, coached by Lahm. “I’m very proud to be part of the FC Bayern Legends for the first time at this special event," said the ex-FCB captain, who's looking forward to "the tournament with amazing clubs from around Europe" as well as "seeing one or two familiar faces from previous big games". He's surely not the only one. For those who want to be at SAP Garden, tickets can be found here.
© Grafik: FC Bayern
31 May: Champions League final in Munich
Jan-Christian Dreesen already set the bar high at the AGM in December: "It must be our goal to be part of the final at our stadium. And this time we won't call it Finale dahoam but Titel dahoam!" declared the CEO towards the members in the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle. Thirteen years after losing in the Champions League final against Chelsea at the same place, the Allianz Arena is again the venue for the most important match in European club football on Saturday 31 May 2025. The fact that Dreesen so brashly demanded Bayern's participation is therefore not due to hubris, but rather expresses the deep longing of all Bayern fans for great success in their own back yard. After all, dreams must be allowed! Success cannot be planned and there is still a long way to go before the final, with the last matches of the league phase still to come in January before the play-offs in February and the final knockout phase in March. How far Bayern will go is still written in the stars – the only thing that is certain is that they will do everything they can to keep the dream of reaching the final or even winning the title "dahoam" ("at home") alive for as long as possible.
After 2013, the Champions League final is taking place at the Allianz Arena in Munich for the second time at the end of May - FCB are desperate to be there. | © Imago
2 July: Start of Women's EURO
After the men were denied last summer, FC Bayern will be hoping that a player from their women's team can become a European champion this year. The UEFA Women's Euro 2025 will take place from 2 to 27 July in Switzerland. Of course, several players from FCB are again set to be involved in the continental competition – and will have to face each other. In Group C, Germany's Giulia Gwinn, Klara Bühl or Lea Schüller could come up against Pernille Harder (Denmark) and Magdalena Eriksson (Sweden). The holders from England, with Georgia Stanway, will also be there in Group D, while Norway with Tuva Hansen and Iceland with Glódís Perla Viggósdóttir both find themselves in Group A. The chances of seeing a Bayern player celebrating at the end of the final in Basel are therefore not bad.
Tuva Hansen and Norway clinched their Euro place in the play-offs in December. | © IMAGO
7 October: Start of new UWCL
It's all change in the UEFA Women's Champions League! After similar reforms to the men's competition at the start of the current campaign, the top club competition in European women's football will also be played out in a new league mode (albeit with 'only' 18 teams) from the 2025/26 season. A new competition will also be launched with the UEFA Women's Europa Cup, which will however take the form of a knockout mode. For UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, this is just proof of the importance attached to the development of women's football: "Both competitions will be exciting and interesting, and will give more players and clubs the opportunity to dream of the European crown," explained the Slovenian.
Whether and in which competition Bayern Women will be competing is not yet known. The champions and runners-up in Germany will qualify for the new-look Champions League, while the third-placed team in the Bundesliga will have to go through qualifying. If they fail, they will instead play in the new Women's Europa Cup, otherwise there is no place set aside for a Bundesliga club. Given how tight the title race in the German top flight is right now – just three points separate the top four at the winter break – anything is possible for FCB Women, who do have another possible route to qualification up their sleeves. Of course, the winners of the current edition will automatically qualify for 2025/26. The defending German champions resume their campaign with the quarter-finals in March...
They key Bayern facts from the past year in one place:
Topics of this article