Bayern Munich recently sealed the 2025/26 Bundesliga title with a 4-2 victory over VfB Stuttgart, not only winning their second league title in a row but also securing a record of 13 Bundesliga title wins in 14 seasons. Given Vincent Kompany’s side also broke many long standing records over the course of the season, Bundesliga fans look at the strength at the Bavarians and despair at the many years of dominance that they seem set to enjoy.
In a recent interview with Bayern’s honorary president and supervisory board member Uli Hoeneß, German news site Frankfurter Allgemeine discussed this total domination of the league. The interviewer suggested it was a problem for both the Bundesliga and Bayern, but Hoeneß staunchly disagreed.
“For Bayern Munich, absolutely not, but for the league, yes. The day will come again when we falter, but then the others will have to be there too,” the three-time European Cup winner said, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, before moving on to why he thinks other Bundesliga clubs fail to challenge at the very top. “Many clubs are very proud when they’ve made a great sale. I’m not a fan of this buying and selling at all. We buy a player for Bayern. And we don’t want to be thinking about where we’ll sell him to as soon as he signs the contract.”
But that is the business model of many clubs…
“But if that’s your business model, you can’t be successful in the long run. We’re way ahead of the others in that respect. In all the years I’ve been here, very rarely has a player left that we desperately wanted to keep. Michael Ballack moved to [Chelsea FC in] England, Toni Kroos to [Real Madrid in] Spain. But even then, we were in control. I ran into Toni once and told him: “Toni, you can earn 10 million euros with us. But if you want to earn 10 million and one euro, then you have to leave.” – And then he left. The same thing happened with David Alaba [also to Real Madrid]. He’s the only player who still calls us on Christmas Eve. But I told him too: “This is our offer, and if you don’t accept it, you have to leave.” – It’s very important to be able to say no sometimes.”
It is always easier to say this when Bayern brings in so much money on their own without requiring massive sales. It is also important to remember that Hoeneß took over as president back in the 1970s when Bayern was in serious debt, though, and still led the club to becoming to becoming the financial powerhouse it is now. Is the financial gap between the elites and non-elites so big that the buy to sell business model is necessary or would a club be able to profit from a tougher approach to keeping their elite players? Hoeneß certainly believes the latter.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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