5 Players Whose Careers Went Backwards After Leaving Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich have had stars come and go over the years. Some have left the Allianz Arena and reached greater heights than ever before. This has been the case for many young players, namely Emre Can and, more recently, Mitchell Weiser.
Others, however, have seen their careers take a turn for the worse. And in some cases, their careers have crashed and burned.
In this article, Bleacher Report takes a look at five players who have left Bayern in recent years, only to suffer and turn out worse off. Those considered are limited to the post-2000 era who earned substantial playing time at the Bavarian giants and are players deemed not to be leaving when "finished" and in the twilight of their careers.
Click "Begin Slideshow" for our picks, presented in chronological order based on the time of their departure from more distant to more recent past.
Owen Hargreaves
1 of 5
Owen Hargreaves was a star player at Bayern, but in 2007, he fulfilled a childhood dream in moving to the Premier League to play for Manchester United. His career didn't take a turn for the worse immediately; in fact, he proved very useful for United in 2007-08 as his side won the UEFA Champions League and Premier League titles.
However, the fitness woes that blighted Hargreaves' Bayern career persisted and worsened following his move to England. Per Transfermarkt, he made just 43 appearances in all senior competitions for United and later Manchester City before hanging up his boots in 2012, aged 31.
Sir Alex Ferguson described Hargreaves as a "disaster" in his book My Autobiography (via Daily Mail), which says it all.
Mario Gomez
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Like Hargreaves, Mario Gomez has seen his post-Bayern career blighted by injuries. The striker, who scored 80 goals for the Bavarians in 2010-11 and 2011-12, left the Allianz Arena the summer Pep Guardiola arrived, in 2013.
At Fiorentina, repeated injuries limited his playing time, and he never got into the long-term rhythm that made him a veritable goal machine at Bayern. He left Italy last summer, having scored just 14 goals in 47 appearances in all competitions.
Now at Besiktas, Gomez is back in form. No foreign player has scored more goals for the Istanbul-based club in a single season than he, and the striker is back in Joachim Low's Germany squad. Yet despite his recent success, the 30-year-old just isn't the player he was at Bayern. It looks like he'll never again be the prolific scorer at a top club that he once was.
Mario Mandzukic
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Mario Mandzukic hasn't exactly failed since he left Bayern for Atletico Madrid in 2014, but his career has certainly taken a turn for the worse.
A year before his departure, the Croatia international had scored in the UEFA Champions League final. He'd been extremely important for a treble-winning side, replacing Gomez in the starting lineup after the German had scored 80 goals in the two seasons prior. Mandzukic was that good.
Then he moved to Atleti, where he lasted just one year. He's now at Juventus, but his strike rate is about a goal every three games. Paulo Dybala is the main scorer for the Serie A giants, and Mandzukic could well find himself replaced this summer if Juve opt to invest in their attack.
Xherdan Shaqiri
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A young player makes his move from Stoke City to Inter Milan, then uses his success as a springboard to earn a big move to Bayern Munich. This sounds like an inspiring story. But when it goes in reverse, it tells the tale of Xherdan Shaqiri's fall from grace.
Once a rising star at Basel, Shaqiri showed real potential after joining Bayern. But he struggled towards the end of his time at the Allianz Arena and joined Inter on loan last January. He lasted just half a season in Milan, recording a goal and two assists in Serie A.
The Milan-based side had committed to sign him on a full transfer in the summer, but they sold him to Stoke in August. Now in the Premier League, he's scored three goals and given five assists in 28 appearances for a club that is more than a few steps down from Bayern.
Bastian Schweinsteiger
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Bastian Schweinsteiger's most devoted fans may have a legitimate complaint in saying it's too early to judge the player's post-Bayern career. But thus far, all signs point to the native Bavarian's career having taken a sharp downward turn after his departure from the Allianz Arena last summer.
Reunited with Louis van Gaal at Manchester United, joining the coach who helped transform him from a mediocre winger to one of the game's best central midfielders, hopes were high that Schweinsteiger would rediscover the form that had made him a linchpin in the Germany side that won the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
He's since struggled with injuries and now is in danger of missing UEFA Euro 2016, although even Van Gaal admitted in February, as reported by the Telegraph's Ian Whittell, that he'd told the midfielder he "expected more."
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