Despite the unsuccessful World Cup campaign in Russia this summer, Germany remains as one of the greatest national teams in football history, having won four World Cup trophies and three European Championships.
The driving force behind the success of the German national team has always been FC Bayern Munich, who produced an endless list of legendary players over last four decades from Franz Beckenbauer to as recently as Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller.
FC Bayern Munich’s 28 Bundesliga titles, 18 cup titles, and 5 Champions League titles (including the historic treble in 2013) give their fans all the right to be proud of Stern des Südens (stars of the South). When Bayern win any of the three competitions mentioned, the players and coaching staff are invited to the city hall in Marienplatz in May to present their trophy and celebrate their successful season with the fans.
2017/18 season was no exception, as Bayern won their sixth Bundesliga title in a row. Although they lost to Frankfurt in the Pokal final the night before, Marienplatz was crowded with Bayern fans hours before the players arrived at the city hall.
This year’s Meisterfeier was quite special, as the 2017/18 season marked the last season of Jupp Heynckes, Bayern’s legendary coach who won the treble in 2013 and came out of retirement last fall to manage Bayern again when they were struggling.
A couple weeks later, I visited FC Bayern’s home stadium, Allianz Arena.
During the stadium tour, I could visit not only the field, but also the locker room, press conference room, and players’ entrance, which was all a very exciting experience for a soccer fanatic like me.
After the tour, I spent an hour in the FC Bayern museum.
The most interesting section was the one on Bayern’s Bavarian roots, particularly the one explaining the origin of Mia San Mia, a phrase that can be found everywhere in Munich.
Mia San Mia is a perfect example of Bavaria’s strong regional pride shown through FC Bayern Munich. I think it is a quite healthy (and economically productive) way to express regional pride, especially in a country like Germany where any expression of national pride has been frowned upon ever since World War II. In fact, at the Meisterfeier a TV screen sponsored by FC Bayern was showing an advertisement of the club initiating Mia San Mia projects in the home countries of their foreign players, through which local youth soccer facilities and clubs for underprivileged children are funded. Munich’s continued support and love of FC Bayern, their growing international fan base, and their immense commercial success, combined with Bayern’s superiority on pitch, show the value of rich history and tradition and how they can help both local and international communities in the present day.