February 2025 BAYERN FAMILY
25 MAY 2013
Bastian Schweinsteiger made sure he held onto his jersey from the final at Wembley , because that day marked his 500th and last competitive appearance for FC Bayern , with whom he became an eight-time German champion and lifted the DFB cup seven times . Thank you , “ Fußballgott ”!
BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER
Illustration Sarah Matuszewski
W hen I woke up that day in London , I immediately had the thought : We ‘ re taking the trophy home tonight ! In 2010 and 2012 , we had narrowly failed and especially after the Finale dahoam in 2012 , we had this huge craving to be the absolute best team in Europe . That much was already evident in the first training session of the new season – and then at Wembley too . During the warm-up , Mario Mandžukić stepped on my ankle in a game of five-on-five , and I was made painfully aware – literally – of his determination . It was our third final in four years – and against Dortmund – so of course we were under pressure , but after 20 minutes we took matters into our own hands . Mario made it 1-0 with an hour gone , and although Ilkay Gündogan equalised with a penalty shortly afterwards , I never thought it could go wrong again . Jupp Heynckes had told us again and again : Take the initiative , don ‘ t be passive ! So we continued to go forward in a controlled manner – and were rewarded . Our winning goal was a completely untypical one . Jérôme Boateng had the ball in our half . I wanted the ball on the left , but he played a long pass forward to Franck Ribéry . We never used to do that ! Then everything happened very quickly . Franck placed the ball and Arjen Robben ‘ s shot crossed the line at an estimated three km / h ! The way Arjen sprinted to the fans afterwards , the way we all ran to him – what an adrenalin rush ! Sheer happiness ! When the referee blew his whistle , I fell to my knees . You could see the same thing in the faces of every single one of them : Finally we ‘ d done it ! The party afterwards was also legendary . At some point I ended up on the dance floor with Jupp Heynckes and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge . Those are glorious memories .
FC Bayern Magazine 97