Biggest flops
Which Bayern signings never worked out — and why?
Flops are usually a story about fit, timing or luck rather than a bad player. Each entry explains what the club expected and what actually happened.
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.
- 1
Renato Sanches
From Benfica · 2016 · fee Reported around €35m
European champion at 18, best young player at the Euros, and barely a Bayern player two years later.
Read the full deal story → - 2
Sébastien Deisler
From Hertha BSC · 2002 · fee Reported around €9m
German football's most gifted young midfielder, undone by injuries and depression. Nobody at the club treats this as a joke.
Read the full deal story → - 3
Ali Karimi
From Al-Ahli Dubai · 2005 · fee Reported around €2m
The Asian Footballer of the Year arrived as an unusually creative signing and left after two seasons.
Read the full deal story →
How this ranking is put together
Each entry is judged on four things: the fee against the value delivered, the trophies won while the player was at the club, how long the impact lasted, and how well the signing answered a real squad need at the time. Free transfers and low-fee deals count, because value for money is part of the judgement. Fees are reported figures — Bayern, like most German clubs, rarely confirm them — and every entry says so rather than implying precision it does not have.