Is the German championship title too little for FC Bayern? T-online columnist Stefan Effenberg thinks a plea for winning the Bundesliga-and makes a prediction for Borussia Dortmund.
The Bundesliga season 2024/25 turns on the home stretch. Three game days still remain. Three game days that have it all. Three game days that we can particularly look forward to. Because: There are three game days on which a lot can still happen.
But I also say that nothing will happen in the front of the table. Because at FC Bayern there is only the question: When do you officially make your 34th German championship title? The Munich team get the shell, even if the pursuer Bayer Leverkusen theoretically still has chances. But eight points ahead, three rounds before the end of the season – the Munich team can no longer be taken. After the dramatic end in the Champions League, the competition had hoped for a little burglary, especially from Leverkusen – but the overall season is simply too stable for the overall season.
Incidentally, I find it disrespectful when it is said that Bayern would “only” get the German championship. Why “only”? The German championship is the most honest title of a season because you have to bring your performance as constant as possible to achieve the goal. This is not a success that is expected. To evaluate a season with a title as a “disappointment” for Bayern – whoever says that has very little idea of football.
The exception confirms the rule: When I returned to Bayern in 1998/99 and we became champions, the joy was not great-but only because we had lost both the Champions League final and the DFB Cup final. In retrospect, this clouded the title gain in the Bundesliga enormously – precisely because we were so close to getting the triple. It wasn’t that tight this season.
Nevertheless, the Bavarians went through a development this season. Only two defeats after 31 games, plus the best defense, 75 points – already three points more than in the entire last season – it is already not an outstanding, but a good season in the first year of coach Vincent Kompany.
Borussia Dortmund, however, still has the chance to complete a long-distance season with a success-because BVB is perhaps the team of this final phase 2024/25 and is still within reach of the Champions League places. Over the season, I have repeatedly emphasized what potential in this team – despite these inexplicable fluctuations in performance, with which they made it so difficult for themselves. But the quality was always there – the better for BVB that the players now apparently understood what it is about.
Currently, three game days before the end, there are only three points behind in fourth place – and I have the feeling that Dortmund still makes it into the “premier class”. The remaining opponents are: VfL Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen, most recently Holstein Kiel. Coach Niko Kovač and his players have the much conjured momentum on their side.