On February 27, 1900 at Munich’s “Gisela” restaurant eleven men met and laid the foundations for one of the biggest football clubs in the world; Bayern Munich. Franz John and his friends decided to found a new club dedicated exclusively to football (soccer), this was due to their dissatisfaction with their previous club, MTV München.
Being tremendously successful, having won almost every competition they have competed in, there is one weird record they have that most people do not know or talk about.
Since 1982 when West Germany lost to Italy in Spain, there has been at least one Bayern Munich player in every World Cup final. This is a joint record (shared with Inter Milan) of 43 years, 11 straight tournaments.
Now in 2025, FIFA has remodeled the FIFA Club World Club expanding it to 32 teams. Bayern Munich qualified as the Best-ranked team in UEFA four-year ranking (3) and were drawn in group C alongside Auckland City, Boca Juniors and Benfica. (4)
Let’s look at Bayern ‘s opponents one by one.
Auckland FC founded in 2024 is the youngest of all clubs but they are dominating the New Zealand Football space with 10 championships alongside 11 of the past 13 OFC Champions League. They qualified the ranking pathway being the most successful team (in the past 4 years) in Oceania’s OFC Champions League. They are regulars in the club world cup, their best finish being 3rd in 2014. They haven’t faced any German team before and the man Bayern Munich should look out for is Angus Kilkolly with 65 goals in 122 games for Auckland FC. (5)
Boca Juniors, a proud Argentine team with a glamorous history also qualified through the ranking system. The club that has football legend Diego Amando Maradona as one of her former players is the most successful Argentine football club with six Libertadores titles to their name. They faced Bayern Munich once in 2001 where Bayern won 1:0 in extra time.(5) The man to watch out for in the Boca ranks is Edison Cavani who has played Bayern 4 times, won once, drawn once and lost twice scoring one goal and assisting one in the process.
Last but not the least is the Portuguese football royalty Benfica who also qualified using the ranking system makes up the group. They have faced Bayern a whopping 55 times winning just 15, they also lost to Bayern Munich in the just concluded champions league league phase when Jamal Musicals scored the only goal of the match. The defensive experience of Nicolas Otamendi would come in handy for Benfica while ex Bayern wonder kid Renato Sanchez would get the chance to play his former club while in the red of Benfica.(5)
Bayern are strong favorites to top the group with a mixture of experience in the likes of Nuer and Kimmich and youthful promise with the likes of Musiala and Olise in their ranks. They have recently named a strong 29 man squad for the competition. (7)
Seeing Bayern’s history with the FIFA world cup, I wonder if Bayern will start another streak now that the FIFA club world cup now resembles the premier national mondial.
It would be great to hear your thoughts; what new streak do you think Bayern can start this year in this competition?
