An entire ballroom wall as a monitor, plus numerous screens hanging from the ceiling and hovering above the heads of around 650 invited guests from sport, politics and society: FC Bayern was impressively showcased at the Paulaner Nockherberg as it celebrated its 125th anniversary with a unique gathering of legends partying into the small hours of 27 February. TV presenter Günther Jauch hosted the ‘Mia san mia’ evening with a series of discussions with various FCB personalities from the past decades, anniversary speeches, film clips and live acts.
"Having roots and a foundation is important - and that's what we're celebrating today," explained Jan-Christian Dreesen during an introductory conversation with Jauch on stage. The 17 founding members could certainly never have imagined in 1900 how this club would develop, said the CEO, looking into a hall packed with distinguished guests: "FC Bayern has always been characterised by innovation and passion - that has never changed over the decades, that has made it great, and it must always stay that way."
FC Bayern is "a club of winners and record-breakers that has been out to surpass itself from day one", said Herbert Hainer, before the president announced in his laudatory speech that FC Bayern was the first club in the world to breach the 400,000-member mark. The history of FC Bayern is "not in the trophies, but in the stories about the legends who are here," he added and invited the room to stand in memory of Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller. "One thing has always remained the same here: That we don't orientate ourselves on the competition, but only on ourselves. What FC Bayern does today is its benchmark for tomorrow."
The witty highlight of the event was a conversation with long-standing FCB bosses Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, during which the pair recalled a number of memories from their time together as players and club officials. Hoeneß said that the situation in top-class international football had "become tougher - but we have a good team on the supervisory board and the board of directors", which is why FC Bayern will rise to the challenges of the future. Rummenigge paid the highest tribute to his companion: "Uli is still the benchmark when it comes to management." Hoeneß explained the secret of FC Bayern like this: If a player is scoring goals for fun, you don't have to be the fourth or fifth person to give him a pat on the back - but if a player tears his cruciate ligament, you have to be the first one at his bedside to show your support. And there was also this message: "Sometimes you have to be critical if you want to move on." The audience honoured this attitude with applause.
Head coach Vincent Kompany's current squad of Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala were joined by an illustrious crowd of well-wishers. Hainer, Hoeneß and Rummenigge sat alongside the board of directors led by Dreesen and his executive vice chairman Michael Diederich, board member for sport Max Eberl and sporting director Christoph Freund, as well as vice presidents Professor Dr Dieter Mayer and Walter Mennekes, and representatives from the supervisory board and the advisory board led by chairman Edmund Stoiber.
The celebrations were attended by countless club icons such as Paul Breitner, Georg "Katsche" Schwarzenbeck, Franz "Bulle" Roth, Werner Olk, Peter Kupferschmidt, Rainer Zobel, Bernd Dürnberger, Walter Junghans, Jean-Marie Pfaff, Klaus Augenthaler, Dieter Hoeneß, Wiggerl Kögl, Michael Rummenigge, Raimond Aumann, Manfred Schwabl, Hansi Pflügler, Stefan Reuter, Lars Lunde, Christian Nerlinger, Markus Babbel, Oliver Kahn, Hasan Salihamidžić, Michael Ballack, Giovane Élber, Sammy Kuffour, Jens Jeremies, Owen Hargreaves, Thomas Linke, Thorsten Fink, Mark van Bommel, Andreas Ottl, Philipp Lahm, Holger Badstuber, Hans-Jörg Butt and Diego Contento - Thiago had to cancel his trip to the event at short notice due to the strike at Munich airport. Also among the guests: Heidi and Joel Beckenbauer, as well as Uschi Müller, widow of club idol Gerd Müller, and long-time companions such as Hermann Gerland, Dr Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, Egon Coordes, former board members Andy Jung and Jörg Wacker, honorary vice president Bernd Rauch and Heiner Jüngling, member number 1 of the German record champions. FC Bayern Women were represented by their long-standing department head Karin Danner as well as director Bianca "Jay" Rech, head coach Alexander Straus and the players Giulia Gwinn, Sarah Zadrazil, Klara Bühl, Mala Grohs and Linda Dallmann. Other guests from the world of football included World Cup winners Günter Netzer and Rudi Völler as well as FIFA president Gianni Infantino and DFB president Bernd Neuendorf.
Political representatives included Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder, Lord Mayor of Munich Dieter Reiter, president of the Bavarian State Parliament Ilse Aigner, ministers of state Joachim Herrmann, Christian Bernreiter, Albert Füracker and Ulrike Scharf, members of the Bundestag Dorothee Bär and Florian Hahn as well as Clemens Baumgärtner, the city's longstanding economic advisor. Tennis legend Boris Becker and television icon Thomas Gottschalk were also in the audience alongside numerous partners of the German record champions.
Dieter Reiter honoured the club with a speech and declared: "I am delighted to be an FC Bayern fan and would like to invite the men's and women's teams to the title celebrations on the town hall balcony again this year." Markus Söder also praised the German record champions in a speech: "Alongside the Oktoberfest, FC Bayern is one of the Free State's great brands - red is not normally my colour, but I can accept it here. Consistently prevailing against many challengers, that's world class, that's Bavarian." Then there was cabaret artist Monika Gruber, who provided a humorous interlude before the Munich band "Spider Murphy Gang" set the mood as everything moved towards midnight - and a barrel of beer, which was tapped in proper style during a speech to the guests by CEO Dreesen.
Important milestones in the history of FC Bayern:
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