4 Bayern Munich Players of the Last 10 Years Who Never Won over the Fans

Sometimes things just don't work out. Football, like life, is full of relationships between one person and either another or an entire company that can for one reason or another simply fail to take off or flourish. 

The European game is full of egotistical athletes who may believe they're better than they are. A person who could start a fight in an empty room. Such personalities aren't always players, of course. Sometimes they're managers, or even a whole group of fans. 

Either way, this problem affects every football club—even those as big and prestigious as Bayern Munich. Here are four players who simply didn't work out in Bavaria. 

Mario Gomez

Fabrizio Giovannozzi/Associated Press

Mario Gomez was a fantastic striker. In 174 games for the Bundesliga side, the German international scored no fewer than 113 goals throughout a number of teams, tactics and coaches. 

But for many of the Bayern faithful, that simply wasn't enough. In a world with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and other star players who could do everything on the wing, a player who was simply very good at scoring in the box wasn't enough for one of the world's biggest clubs. 

Ultimately, Gomez was forced to leave the club. He now finds himself scoring goals for fun in Italy for Fiorentina. This is a man who gave his all for Bayern and scored goals aplenty, but never really won over the fans he served each week in Germany. 

Xherdan Shaqiri

Tim Ireland/Associated Press

Unlike Gomez, Xherdan Shaqiri comes into this list as a player who never really offered or indeed showed exactly what all the fuss was about. 

The Swiss midfielder arrived in Munich as a talented youngster who had high hopes of one day replacing Franck Ribery or Arjen Robben on either wing, but whenever he got a shot on the pitch, things never went to plan. 

This led to a lot of grumbling from the ambitious talent, who complained about leaving the club long before he was actually sold by the Munich side. 

“I wanted a move in the summer, of course, but the club made their decision and I’ve just got to live with it," Shaqiri told the press, as reported by Kyle Bonn of MSNBC last November.

Within a year, he was signing for Stoke and very much forgotten at the Allianz Arena. 

Breno

Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

Next on our list is a Brazilian defender who may well be known as the most infamous Bayern player of the past 10 years. 

Breno Vinicius Rodrigues Borges, or "Breno" to you or me, arrived at Bayern in December 2007 with high hopes and a growing reputation, but this was a deal that the club would ultimately regret. 

After two years and just 22 games, Breno went out on loan to Nurnberg, were he played regularly but quickly had his season ruined when he sustained a cruciate ligament injury in March 2010. 

On July 4, 2012, Breno was arrested for three years and nine months after being convicted of arson. He currently sits in Stadelheim Prison, a troubled case and ultimately an unfortunate signing by the club. 

Mario Mandzukic

Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

Another striker who probably didn't get a fair run of things from the Bayern fans was, of course, Juventus' new striker, Mario Mandzukic. 

The Croatian forward signed from Wolfsburg in 2012 as a direct replacement for Gomez, but despite offering more than just goals he would ultimately succumb to the same fate as his predecessor. 

Despite two Bundesliga titles and a Champions League winners medal for the Bavarian side, Mandzukic had one problem: Pep Guardiola didn't like him. The striker may have flourished under Jupp Heynckes, but when the Catalan took over at Bayern, things quickly changed.

In an interview for Sportske Novosti (h/t ESPN) after his move away form Bayern, Mandzukic stated: 

"

I felt that things changed for me as soon as [Guardiola] arrived. I made an effort to adapt, but it needs both sides to do something for that to happen. I realised that I had no future at Bayern, so I resigned myself to leaving the club and had to choose a new destination.

"

Twelve months later, Robert Lewandowski would arrive and the Allianz Arena would quickly forget Mandzukic. It was an unfortunate tale for such a talented player in the dark red of Bayern.