Bayern Munich

For some reason, whenever I proudly announce to a room that I’m a Bayern Munich fan I get groans and disbelief. The groans are the typical “oh god, not another football fan” kind of bemoaning you expect from civilised people. The disbelief comes from football fans. Why? Because as a born-and-bred Dubliner, I’m supposed to support an English team.

I don’t not-support an English team out of any kind of national pride or a deliberate attempt to not support something from those bastards who took control of our precious land for 800 years. No, I’ve no such national pride, and quite enjoy the company of English people. In fact, they can have the land back. It’s not worth much, just ask NAMA.

Rather, having some semblance of family in Germany I’ve always grown up aware of the country, and always liked it. I wanted to learn German in school but was forced to learn the ever-romantic tongue that is French. As lovely as it is to know French, I’ll never try to live in France. I would gladly live in Germany, though. On top of that, German football is the regimented, play-by-play kind of football style that I enjoy. Where a few players stand out because they play with class or style, and get away with it. Premier league teams can’t have that for the most part, because class and style is punished by hard tackling and nasty gameplay.

Liking Bayern is great because they’re a team people know. I don’t have to ‘explain’ why I like them as much as someone who might like Werder Bremen or Leverkusen. But somehow, it still requires more explanation then if I liked Manchester United or Liverpool. Though, my support of a “foreign” team does have its charms. For one, the jerseys are always a little nicer… in part due to the fact that Adidas has quite a large share of Bayern Munich, Inc. Second, I don’t get tied up in the silly bickering between children who fight the cause between “United versus Liverpool” discussions. Third, the Allianz arena is a true marvel of engineering. Something that is somewhat replicated with the new Landsdowne road (or “Aviva Stadium” as it’s now called).

The final thing that is always nice about being a Bayern fan is that Premier League fans consistently under-estimate my team. A team I follow with shocking attention to detail. So much so that I do believe I could manage any team. In fact, the only other team I follow with some obsession is Barcelona. My reasons there are that my lovely other half lived there for some time a few years ago, and has an affinity with the city. That, and the fact that Barcelona is a Spanish team with class, unlike their greasy, monarchy-funded, scumbag counter-parts. And, of course, Messi-ah. Though if it comes down to the Bundesliga or La Liga teams together, Munich will always be the favoured side.

And so we come to tonight, where in the first leg of the champions league double-whammy against Manchester United (a long-heralded fixture of torment for both sides) Bayern disposed of the English side with a relative sense of ease and passion with a second-rate team on the pitch, given their superstars Robben and Schweinsteiger were out due to injury and suspension (respectively). The typical twitter chatter came through, and someone did a quick snap of their timeline, a timeline mainly populated with Irish and English tweeters. When Olic skillfully robbed the United defense of their possession and hammered home a goal to bring the score to 2-1, most twitter users went crazy, lamenting the poor performance of their team (after a rather strong start), and then there was me.

Spot the Bayern fan

See you next week, football fans