Former Bayern striker Roy Makaay – a phantom turns 50

When Harry Kane made it 2-0 against the Scottish champions at Celtic Park in February, it didn’t just help Bayern progress in the Champions League play-offs. The Englishman also set a new record with his 15th goal in only his 20th Champions League match for Bayern. Roy Makaay - one of his predecessors in the Bayern attack, who celebrates his 50th birthday today, 9 March - was the previous fastest to that total but had needed one more game. That is not to say, however, that the Dutchman lags behind Kane in terms of goalscoring prowess. Makaay was once Europe's top scorer when he moved to Munich in 2003, while Kane won the coveted Golden Shoe last season.

And yet the two exceptional strikers, who are both among the best of their generation, could hardly be more different. While Kane can be found everywhere on the pitch as a playmaking striker, Makaay was feared as a phantom in his day. Invisible for a long time and then appearing at the decisive moment. He can't quite explain where he got this gift. “You can't learn this instinct for goals. Of course, you can improve your shooting technique or your header, but you either have it or you don't at the right moment,” Makaay said.

A hat-trick to seal a move

During his time in Munich, the striker was quite often right where he was needed. Makaay scored 103 goals in 189 games for Bayern from 2003 to 2007 and won the double of Bundesliga and DFB Cup in both 2005 and 2006. Before that, he had submitted a very compelling job application by scoring a hat-trick against Bayern at the Olympiastadion for Deportivo La Coruna in September 2002. Those in charge in Munich quickly agreed that it would be better for this man to play for them rather than against them from now on.

Makaay was the kind of goalscorer that every coach likes to have in their team - even if he didn't always stick to the rules. In training, it was often rehearsed that as a striker you had to run to the first post, Makaay revealed. “But then in the game you stand at the far post and score the goal. Sometimes you can't explain it. It's instinct, you just have that feeling that the ball is going to fall there.” That's simply what made a good striker, because “otherwise it becomes too easy for the opposition if you always do what you've trained to do. They can adjust to that.”

Makaay's perhaps most famous goal in a Bayern shirt was probably not one they’d practised. In the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie against Real Madrid on 7 March 2007, Bayern had to turn around a 3-2 deficit at the Allianz Arena from the first leg two weeks earlier and got off to a flying start. Immediately after the visitors kicked off, Hasan Salihamidžić won the ball, played it on to Makaay and “before we had even realised it, it was in the net”, the goalscorer later recalled. Makaay had scored after 10.12 seconds – the fastest Champions League goal in history to date.

World Squad coach

After his career as a striker, Makaay remained in football and has worked as a coach ever since. Initially in various positions at Feyenoord, where he ended his playing career in 2010 and ended Feyenoord's 18-year period of suffering without an Eredivisie title in 2017 as assistant coach to his friend Giovanni van Bronckhorst. He later coached at Rangers in Scotland and in the last two years also returned to the German record champions, where he most recently coached the FC Bayern World Squad.  

He is happy to pass on his knowledge to the next generation, even if some things are difficult to pass on. “I never said I did it this way, you have to do it this way,” said Makaay. “Every striker is different and has to be trained according to their abilities.” The goalscoring instinct of a world-class striker is something you’re born with, just like the phantom Makaay was. Roy, we wish you a very happy birthday!

Bayern legends will compete in the Beckenbauer Cup on 17 March: