1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

The Mia san Mia Phenomenon — FC Bayern, an international success story

October 19, 2017

Loved, hated and respected throughout the world: FC Bayern Munich has the power to fascinate and to polarize. But what makes the club so special? The team won its first European title 50 years ago. It was the beginning of a model success story. This documentary traces the irresistible rise of one of the biggest clubs in world soccer.

https://p.dw.com/p/2lW9v

"We became more than a football club a long time ago. We are a home to people, a kind of surrogate family" (Uli Hoeness). Reporters Niels Eixler and Manuel Vering covered more than 50,000 kilometers in search of what makes the club so special. They accompanied the team through the Champions League season, talked to legends such as Philipp Lahm, Oliver Kahn and Uli Hoeness, visiting Samuel Kuffour in Ghana, Giovane Élber in Brazil and Kanata Tokumoto, the rising star in Japan. "I absorbed all the values personified by FC Bayern, because you can only achieve success through total identification with the club." (Oliver Kahn). In addition to 60 national and international titles, the club now boasts 300,000 members. Our report also features fans from New York, Rio and Nazareth telling us their own personal stories. "It doesn’t matter whether you are a Palestinian or a Jew: when Bayern score, you hug everybody." (Kamal Abu Lail). From local heroes to global stars: the story of Bayern Munich.