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Three players who were ruined by Bayern Munich in recent years

In this article, we take a look at three players who were ruined by Bayern Munich in recent years.

Mario Gotze

Bengaluru, May 25: One of the biggest clubs in world football, Bayern Munich truly have a global fanbase. The Bavarian giants have been the dominating force in German football for decades now with no club in the country capable enough of competing with them financially.

The five time Champions League winners have established a monopoly in Germany over the years but their means of doing it have always been kind of controversial. Bayern Munich have one of the best academies in European football that has produced some of the greatest players in football history.

On top of that, they have cash to burn and have a tendency of killing off any kind of competition in Germany by signing the best players from their rivals. They are the biggest spenders in Germany by a large margin and even do not shy away from getting the best players in Bundesliga providing a two-fold impact on their rivals by both weakening them and not even paying for it.

Bayern's tendency of stockpiling players have seen some amazing talents facing a major dip in their career over the years and in this article, we will take a look at three such examples in recent years.

3. Xherdan Shaqiri

Xherdan Shaqiri was hailed as the biggest talent from Switzerland when he made his breakthrough with FC Basel and soon Bayern came calling for the talented winger.

Dubbed as the 'Alpine Messi', Shaqiri was a unique talent that Bayern wasted for three long years. When Shaqiri arrived at the Allianz Arena, Bayern arguably had the strongest attack in world football with the likes of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery ahead of him in the pecking order.

The Swiss international could make just 58 appearances for the Bavarians in three seasons having scored 11 goals during that time and left Bayern for Inter with hopes to resurrect his career. He also could not make much of an impact for the Nerazzurri and moved on to Stoke City and suffered relegation with the Potters.

However, following Stoke's relegation, he was snapped up by Liverpool on a bargain and although, he is not a regular in Jurgen Klopp's starting XI, he played an important role for the Reds' Champions League triumph last campaign.

2. Lukas Podolski

One of the greatest German players of all time, Podolski also found life difficult at Bayern Munich. The 34-year-old, who boasts the third highest number of international caps for Germany after Lothar Matthäus and Miroslav Klose, spent three years at Allianz Arena and those were probably the most unhappy three years of his illustrious career.

The dynamic striker joined Bayern for €10 million from his biyhood club FC Koln in the summer of 2006 with an extraordinary potential but Ottmar Hitzfeld's return to the club saw the forward craving for opportunities from the bench more often than not.

Hitzfeld signed Italian Luca Toni in 2007 and paired him up with Klose up front which saw Podolski languishing on the bench on a weekly basis and things also did not change much under Jurgen Klinsmann.

The German returned to Koln in 2009 and then moved on to clubs like Arsenal, Inter and Galatasaray but he could never become as successful at club level as that of with Germany.

1. Mario Gotze

There is hardly any sadder sight in football in compared to Mario Gotze's fall from grace. The flamboyant attacking midfielder came through the youth ranks of Borussia Dortmund and Jurgen Klopp did not fail to recognize the talent of the youngster.

He soon became a key player at Signal Iduna Park as Klopp's BVB put an end to Bayern's dominance in Bundesiga for some time despite their little resources. In 2013, Gotze's release clause was triggered by Bayern and Dortmund were powerless to stop their biggest talent from joining their rivals.

His move to Bayern never worked out as he was left out on the bench by Pep Guardiola more often than not despite his immense talent. It was Gotze's goal that brought the World Cup to Germany in 2014 and even that could not change Guardiola's mind Gotze never truly got the chance to prove himself at the Allianz Arena.

He returned to Dortmund in 2016 as the shadow of his former self and is set to leave the club at the end of the season on a free transfer after failing to make the grade under Lucien Favre.

Story first published: Monday, May 25, 2020, 15:00 [IST]
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