Bayern Munich's Best Overseas XI vs. Best Domestic XI Since 2000
Bayern Munich's history in the 2000s can be categorized into two periods of excellence on either side of a more difficult period in the club's history.
They reached two Champions League finals and won one around the turn of the 21st century, and after a few years out of contention for Europe's top honors, they have again become an international superpower since 2010.
The Bavarians now are a very diverse team, with players of a wide range of nationalities among their ranks. But their core also includes several Germany internationals. This kind of mixture has more or less been a constant in the club's history, at least in this millennium.
In this article, B/R takes a look at Bayern's top performers over the last 16 years, picking out the best German and non-German XIs.
Selections are based on performance for Bayern in all competitions in the 2000s, fitting into a 4-3-3 formation.
Click "Begin Slideshow" to see our picks of goalkeepers, followed by defenders, midfielders and forwards.
Goalkeepers
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German: Oliver Kahn
Oliver Kahn or Manuel Neuer? With each passing year, the discussion tilts further in the latter's favor as he achieves new heights and the former becomes more of a distant memory. So let's see what they have among their accolades.
Neuer has won the Bundesliga in three of four full seasons played. Kahn won it eight times, although only six came in the 2000s, and he did so in nine campaigns in the current millennium.
Kahn's record in the DFB-Pokal is almost the same, with five titles in the 2000s to Neuer's two in four seasons. Both have a UEFA Champions League trophy to their name, although Kahn's came in more dramatic manner, with the goalkeeper making a couple stunning saves as Bayern edged Valencia in penalty shootout in 2001.
Internationally, Neuer has the triumph of the 2014 World Cup as something that Kahn never achieved.
But what Kahn did for Bayern, with a great but less dominant team around him than Neuer, may give him a slight edge. At least for the time being.
Kahn carried his Bayern and Germany teams at times in ways that Neuer has rarely had to do, and his heroics earned international acclaim as he earned the rare honor of being a Ballon d'Or finalist in 2001 and 2002, runner-up for the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2002, winner of the World Cup Golden Ball in 2002, and the Champions League Final man of the match in 2001.
Foreign: Pepe Reina
Fun fact: Only two non-German goalkeepers have served Bayern Munich since 2000. They are Pepe Reina and Ivan Lucic, both of whom were brought into the team last season.
Reina spent just one season in Munich, playing only 193 minutes in three games in all competitions, per Transfermarkt. In his final appearance, he was sent off after just 13 minutes; last summer he moved to Napoli.
Lucic is still a Bayern player, but he has never played for the first team and has only been in the matchday squad once, the first leg of last season's Champions League quarter-final tie with FC Porto.
So despite his Allianz Arena career ending on a poor note, Reina is the best foreign Bayern goalkeeper of the millennium on virtue of the fact that he's the only foreign goalkeeper to play a minute for the club since the turn of the 21st century.
Defenders
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German: Philipp Lahm, Jerome Boateng, Thomas Linke, Holger Badstuber
The best German full-back since Andreas Brehme, Philipp Lahm is a lock for the right-back spot.
In the other three defensive positions, few Germans have featured since the turn of the 21st century. Thus, it's a rather easy choice to put Jerome Boateng at center-back.
The fact that no German left-back has played more than a few games for Bayern since 2000 means that there is no competition between Thomas Linke and Holger Badstuber for a central-defensive spot; the latter can simply play left-back, as he did in his debut season in 2009-10.
Foreign: Willy Sagnol, Lucio, Samuel Kuffour, David Alaba
There have been many more foreign defenders than German ones since 2000, making the selection a much more difficult one.
As a World Cup and Champions League winner, Lucio had abundant class; at Bayern, he won three Bundesliga-DFB Pokal doubles and was a huge player for the Bavarians in a time in which the squad overall was a shadow of that which had been so brilliant in the early 2000s and that which would eventually become treble winners in 2013.
Willy Sagnol and Bixente Lizarazu were the world's best full-back partners at their height, but with David Alaba having developed into so much more than just the world's best left-sided defender—and played for over 200 games—he gets the nod at left-back.
Sagnol, meanwhile, has little competition on the right; the likes of Massimo Oddo don't stand a chance against the World Cup finalist, who won the Champions League with Bayern in 2001.
Finally, the last central-defensive position is one of moderate competition, with Martin Demichelis, Daniel van Buyten, Patrik Andersson and Samuel Kuffour among the contestants.
Although Andersson's dramatic, Bundesliga-winning goal in 2001 earns him extra points, Kuffour spent much more time in Munich and achieved more, so he gets the nod.
Midfielders
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German: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Michael Ballack, Stefan Effenberg
Alongside Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger was the poster of Bayern Munich's rising generation in the mid-2000s and beyond.
First a winger, then a central midfielder, the Germany international made 500 appearances for Bayern (per Transfermarkt), won a treble, eight Bundesliga titles and the DFB-Pokal on seven more occasions. Age hasn't treated him well, but at his peak, Schweinsteiger was the most complete central midfielder in the world.
Like Schweinsteiger, Michael Ballack had the choice of staying at Bayern amid interest from teams that were better at the time. With the club lacking the financial and personnel resources needed to compete, Ballack left in 2006. In four years in Munich, though, he managed to win three domestic doubles. And at times, he really carried the team.
Although some Bayern fans are not so keen on him, Ballack deserves credit for being a quality player in a not-so-great time for the club and German footballing history.
Stefan Effenberg rounds off the Bayern German midfield, offering a certain mentality that Ballack and, for most of his career, Schweinsteiger, lacked.
Not always the prettiest player, he still had great playmaking vision and could deliver the ball on a dime over short and long range. He was extremely aggressive, to the point that he actually didn't need to tackle so much because he could anticipate passes and win the ball without a crunching tackle. But when he had to, Effenberg would shrug off almost anyone.
A Champions League, three-time Bundesliga and two-time DFB-Pokal winner, the "Tiger" became a real legend at Bayern Munich during his career.
Foreign: Mark van Bommel, Javi Martinez, Ze Roberto
Bayern's German central midfielders have, by and large, been better than their imports in the same positions during the 2000s. But there still have been some great performers from abroad in midfield, with Ze Roberto perhaps the best.
The Brazilian spent six season in Munich on either side of a one-year hiatus, amassing 248 appearances in all competitions, per Transfermarkt. He had an incredible work ethic that kept him useful to Bayern even as he approached his 35th birthday. It's no surprise that the World Cup finalist is still going at 41.
Mark van Bommel may have left Munich in less-than-triumphant manner—a midseason departure in 2011—but during his time there, he made his impact on the club's history.
Following Oliver Kahn's retirement in 2008, the Dutchman was made Bayern's first non-German captain. He had enormous shoes to fill, but did so rather brilliantly, giving a combative feel to the midfield. It was something the club lacked in the Champions League after his departure, an aggressive nature that made him a nightmare for skilled opposition to play against and saw him make an impact in vital matches.
His goal that knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League in 2007 is many a Bayern fan's favorite of all time—a strike from the edge of the penalty area that had passion written all over it.
Finally, Javi Martinez rounds off the list of best foreign Bayern midfielders, beating the likes of Thiago Alcantara due to the number of games he's played and the effect he had on a pivotal point in the club's history.
After Bayern's shock defeat in the 2012 Champions League final, Martinez joined Jupp Heynckes' midfield in a move that some found bizarre due to the fact that he was purchased for a record fee and because the club was more in need of quality in central defense and in the striker position at the time.
Yet in his first season, Martinez fit the Bayern squad like a glove, forming an exceptional partnership with Schweinsteiger that few could compare with.
He's since had plenty of injuries and moved into defense, but for the role he played in Bayern's most successful season ever, he must be included.
Forwards
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German: Thomas Muller, Mario Gomez, Mehmet Scholl
Like Alaba, Thomas Muller is still quite young yet has already become a legend of Bayern Munich. Having been fit almost without exception from the time he became a regular starter in 2009, he's managed to record well over 300 appearances for the first team, directly involving himself in over 250 goals.
It's a stupendous record, and he has been the most consistent producer for the Bavarian giants over that same period of time: More so than even Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, even if the foreign duo have been more in the spotlight.
Bayern rarely lose when Muller plays, and he's a scorer of huge goals; it's no wonder he's already won a treble, four Bundesliga titles, three DFB-Pokal championships and the World Cup, among other competitions.
Although Miroslav Klose was once a great player, the main striker in the German Bayern XI has to go to Mario Gomez. He may have left Munich unceremoniously in 2013, but the striker scored a remarkable 113 goals in 174 appearances, including 23 in the Champions League, per Transfermarkt.
Without him to turn the ball into the net, Bayern might not have been in a position to sign the players they've since signed and become the team they are now.
The third German attacker is Mehmet Scholl, the creative No. 10 and winger who spent 15 years at Bayern from 1992-2007 and represented the club in nearly 500 games.
Equal parts scorer and assist-giver, the Karlsruhe native scored 117 goals and set up 106 more as a Bayern player. In the 2000s, he won the Champions League, five Bundesliga and four DFB-Pokal titles.
For Bayern, he truly is a legend.
Foreign: Arjen Robben, Giovane Elber, Franck Ribery
Make no mistake: Bayern Munich would never have experienced such a resurgence as they did in the late 2000s and early 2010s without Ribery.
After several years in the woods, during which they were no longer particularly competitive in the Champions League, the Bavarians' capture of the Frenchman changed everything for them.
Ribery was a Ballon d'Or finalist, named UEFA Best Player in Europe in 2013 and played a key role in both goals in the Champions League final the same year. He's won five Bundesliga and four DFB-Pokal titles to boot. And when he retires, there should be statues of him in Munich.
Ribery's right-hand man, Arjen Robben, arrived at Bayern two years later, in 2009. Bayern at the time still lacked a bit of quality in the attacking third and were over-reliant on Ribery.
The Dutchman changed everything, and perhaps he has been more decisive for Bayern than any other player during his spell at the Allianz Arena: When he's on, Bayern win. And when he struggles, so do Bayern.
The spring of 2012 aside, Robben has generally delivered in the big moments; his goal and assist in the 2013 Champions League final surely secured his place in the annals of club history.
The final attacking position is becoming an increasingly close race between Giovane Elber and Robert Lewandowski, but the former is still on top.
Elber was instrumental to Bayern winning the Champions League in 2001, scoring in both legs against Real Madrid in the semi-finals, and at home to Manchester United along the way.
And in the following season, he was again huge against Real, albeit in a losing effort. Elber scored 77 goals in the 2000s for Bayern, an excellent record.
And although Lewandowski is hot on his heels, he isn't quite there yet.
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