Bayern Munich Look to Return to Bundesliga Dominance

Bayern Munich is NOT happy about having to relinquish its Bundesliga throne and is determined to regain it by flexing its financial muscle. The 2006-07 season saw Germany’s largest club, and winner of 3 of the past 4 Bundesliga titles, finish fourth in the league, ten points behind league winners Stuttgart, and fail to bring home any domestic or international silverware. Additionally, finishing out of the top three, a decidedly “un-Bayern-like” finish, leaves the club out of next season’s Champion’s League, a competition in which the club is a mainstay. Stung by these sub-par results and determined to leave them in the past, Bayern Munich has aggressively attacked the summer transfer market, spending about £47 million ($94.2 million) to bolster its squad and fill holes in the lineup left by a series of outgoing transfers.

While Bayern Munich’s entire 2007-08 squad will feature new faces at several positions, the club’s attacking corps will have undergone the most dramatic facelift, with German international Lukas Podolski the only prominent holdover. Following the exits of its 2006-07 leading scorer, Dutch striker Roy Makaay (Feyenood) and Peruvian international Claudio Pizarro (Chelsea), Bayern added Fiorentina striker and World Cup champion Luca Toni for £7.5 million ($15 million), as well as Werder Bremen’s Miroslav Klose for £10 million ($20 million), Germany’s leading scorer in the 2006 World Cup, where he teamed with Podolski, who is also a Polish-born German international. The club also looked to the bottom of the Bundesliga for another attacking option, spending €1.2 million to bring in striker Jan Schlaudraff from newly relegated Alemannia Aachen.

In its midfield, Bayern lost a talented duo, but more than made up for it by going on a bit of a midfield shopping spree. The club, at long last, completed the £17 million ($34 million) transfer of 26 year-old defensive midfielder Owen Hargreaves to Manchester United. The English international and Manchester United had been engaged in a protracted public courtship, which was delayed due to Bayern Munich’s refusal to part with the player at less than full value. In addition to Hargreaves, Bayern Munich will lose talented playmaker and 2004 Asian Player, Ali Karimi, whose contract expired following the 2006-07. Due to poor form likely brought about by injuries, the Iranian international, whose exceptional ball skills have led to his being called the “Asian Maradona, will continue has career elsewhere.

In response to these losses, the club has not only revamped every aspect of its midfield, but has also added one of the world’s top attacking midfielders. The crown jewel of Bayern’s off-season spending is French international Franck Ribery, most recently of Marseille. Combined with the clubs collection of world-class strikers, the French international