Legends
Who are the greatest players in FC Bayern history?
Search the profile archive or filter by era and position. Each profile carries a stats table, a career narrative and the moments people still argue about.
By MiaSanMia Editorial · Last updated
Accuracy note. Figures on this page are documented facts, current to the end of the 2024-25 season. Transfer fees are reported figures: German clubs rarely confirm them officially.
12 profiles
Goalkeeper
Sepp Maier
1965–1979 · Germany
Die Katze von Anzing — the cat from Anzing. Maier played 442 consecutive Bundesliga matches, a record no goalkeeper has approached, and kept goal for every trophy of the club's first great era.
Defender
Franz Beckenbauer
1965–1979 · Germany
Der Kaiser invented the attacking sweeper: a defender who carried the ball out of the back line as a matter of course. He is the only person to have won the World Cup as captain and as manager.
Forward
Gerd Müller
1965–1979 · Germany
Der Bomber scored 365 Bundesliga goals in 427 games — a record that stands more than four decades after he retired, and one nobody active is close to.
Forward
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1980–1997 · Germany
The face of Bayern in the 1980s, twice European Footballer of the Year, and later the executive who ran the club's commercial side for two decades.
Goalkeeper
Oliver Kahn
1998–2012 · Germany
Der Titan. Signed from Karlsruher SC in 1994 for a fee that looks absurd today, Kahn spent fourteen years as the loudest and most demanding presence in the dressing room.
Defender
Philipp Lahm
1998–2012 · Germany
Guardiola called him the most intelligent player he ever coached. Lahm played full-back on either side and central midfield at the highest level, and captained both club and country to their defining wins.
Midfielder
Bastian Schweinsteiger
1998–2012 · Germany
Started as a winger, ended as the standard-setter in central midfield. If one player carries the emotional weight of both 2012 and 2013, it is Schweinsteiger.
Forward
Thomas Müller
2013–2025 · Germany
Raumdeuter — interpreter of space. Müller made more competitive appearances for Bayern than any player in the club's history and won more trophies than any German footballer.
Goalkeeper
Manuel Neuer
2013–today · Germany
The sweeper-keeper. Neuer's signing from Schalke in 2011 was booed by parts of Bayern's own support; he then changed what the position is understood to be.
Forward
Robert Lewandowski
2013–2022 · Poland
Signed on a free transfer from Borussia Dortmund in 2014 and became the most efficient centre-forward of his generation — the best value deal in the club's modern history.
Forward
Franck Ribéry
1998–2012 · France
One half of Robbery. Twelve years, one wing, and the creative engine of the 2013 treble side — bought for a fee that Bayern recovered many times over.
Forward
Arjen Robben
1998–2012 · Netherlands
Everyone in the stadium knew he would cut inside onto his left foot. It kept working anyway — including in the 89th minute at Wembley in 2013.