Recently, former Bayern Munich midfielder Toni Kroos was asked about Germany’s defeat to Spain in EURO 2024. He compared it to one specific defeat which makes Bayern Munich fans everywhere want to tear their hair out or burst into tears. Kroos would go onto have an extremely prolific career, winning six UEFA Champions League titles overall, but he still brought up that defeat. And sometimes, defeats like that attract so much sympathy that it makes a team gain new fans as our very own Ineednoname would tell you:
It’s hard for me to explain WHAT it was that convinced me to support Bayern Munich back in 2012. Frankly I knew nothing about football and I honestly wasn’t even sure I enjoyed the sport. But for whatever reason, when Bayern lost the CL final to Chelsea that year, it hurt me in a way that absolutely wasn’t logical. I felt bad for these guys on my screen in a way I didn’t normally, like the pain of their loss was my pain too. I don’t know why, but that’s when my initial emotional connection to this team was forged and it’s remained a constant ever since.
To me, it’s not the highs of supporting this team that tell me I’m a fan. It’s those lows, like losing to Chelsea in 2012, or the Madrid loss this year – events over a decade apart – which continue to hurt like it’s the first time ever. That’s what reminds me I’ve got a genuine emotional connection to the club and why I continue to support it every single week.
In fact, I can tell you the same. I knew very little about the game when I watched Germany succumb to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup final. And I felt their pain so thoroughly that German football gained a new supporter that day.
Germany and Bayern though are both highly prolific teams and have trophy cabinets which most teams can only dream of. In Bayern’s so-called “one team league”, stadiums are filled regularly by fans of teams like Borussia Mönchengladbach (last major trophy: DFB-Pokal winners, 1995), FC Köln (DFB-Pokal winners, 1983), Borussia Dortmund (DFB-Pokal winners, 2021), SC Freiburg (DFB-Pokal runners-up: 2022) and so many more. Aside from Dortmund, all these clubs have been relegated in the past two decades, some more than once. And yet, supporters flock to the gates week in, week out.
The glory of the UEFA Champions League is all well and good, winning an international competition is good too, but not winning a trophy does not seem to signal the demise of a football club. Nor does it seem to prevent supporters flocking to the league of their choice — Manchester City has dominated the Premier League for the past seven seasons, winning six titles in that span and yet, the Premier League is considered to be the best league in the world. City winning means 19 other teams did not win the league.
Recently, we found that Bayern, despite winning absolutely nothing and not getting close to winning anything last season — the gap to the Bundesliga champions, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, was 18 points — gained more members. If winning was everything, that certainly would not have happened.
Bayern did not win trophies and yet fans kept coming. What exactly keeps football fans, especially those not from the area of a club, keep coming back, even after a (relatively) miserable season? It is one thing to gain new fans but another to keep them around. Yet, we see time and again that so many clubs, not necessarily with winning histories, have a global following seeped in deep loyalty. Take Borussia Dortmund for example — they are the record runners-up — yes, the number of times they have finished second in the Bundesliga is a record — and yet have so many fans nationwide. They have about numerous fan clubs, including one in London, a city in which Bayern does not have an official fan club. They have fan clubs in Vietnam, Nepal and Peru as well!
Fan clubs forge a sense of community for sure; yet, it cannot simply be a sense of community, can it? Or perhaps it is. It might also be that the club’s values align with the supporter’s values. Values were a big part of why Bayern became my club.
It might even be the chance of a potential reward rather than values that keep fans coming back. When Lille becomes French champions, when Bayer Leverkusen wins the Bundesliga, when Atalanta wins the Europa League or when Napoli wins Serie A, there is admiration from across the globe specifically because they are not expected to win trophies. When they do, they do not suddenly become a part of the one percent of football teams that win trophies consistently; instead, they become a fairy-tale, something to warm the heart of a football romantic, a reminder that the sport can sometimes produce a champion which does not make so many sigh.
Beyond everything, I would venture that there is something intangible that we do not quite understand about support in football. Win or lose (unless support is attached to a single player or Real Madrid), it seems that supporters rarely ever change clubs once they find their place. I come from a family of Arsenal supporters, some who have rooted for the club for over three decades. Arsenal have not won a Premier League trophy since 2004.
If it is not trophies, it must be love. Love overcomes losing every time. That is why, once again, the Südkurve will rise next season. That is why the Yellow Wall will rise for Borussia Dortmund once more. And that is why fans of Bayer Leverkusen’s neighbors, Köln and Borussia Mönchengladbach will be back at the grounds again.
It was never about trophies after all. It was always about love.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s roller coaster ride of a transfer window, plus some chatter on Harry Kane’s health and a listener Q&A? Good, then we have you covered with the Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show, where we hit on all of that and more! You can get the podcast on Patreon, Spotify, or below: