MUNICH: Bastian Schwarzenegger was doing his pitch-side analysis at the Allianz Arena when Thomas Mueller came running from behind unnoticed and poured a huge jug of beer on him, taking his former Germany and Bayern Munich teammate by complete surprise.
Mueller and his team were in the party mood on Sunday after Bayern beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 and completed the formality of winning the Bundesliga title for the 10th season in a row. Bayern's perfect 10 was a great way of giving new coach Julian Nagelsmann his first trophy, perhaps signalling another period of their domination in German football.
Their home, the imposing Allianz Arena, was full of vibrancy with Schickeria - the team's ultra fans - leading the chorus throughout the match, anticipating what looked like a foregone conclusion. Erling Haaland's Dortmund were nowhere near challenging the Munich masters and the latest loss would perhaps put more pressure on their coach Marco Rose, who described the latest episode of Der Klassiker as "the most unimportant game" of the league.
Bundesliga has its own uniqueness. Unlike other major European leagues, the clubs in Germany's top tier of domestic football are less worried about debt and investor's takeover, thanks to Bundesliga's well-structured financial prudence. Fans here always call the shots, with the controlling power of a club's 50+1 ownership rule.
And no other leagues have managed to groom and promote local talent right up to the national team with as much dedication and discipline as Bundesliga. And in the likes of two-time Fifa Best-award winner Lewandowski and Haaland, tipped to be a big star in the making, the league has its appeal for international viewers as well.
More importantly, this is the league which opened to action for the first time in the middle of a pandemic, thus setting the template for other leagues to follow. As Bayern fans drank and danced after the match at the jam-packed Allianz Arena - this is the second time the German champions' home ground welcomed a full house since the pandemic - it in essence captured their spirit and passion to witness a crowning glory the coronavirus threatened to take away.
There is a rider to the brouhaha around Bayern's march to the title, though. From Carlo Ancelotti to Pep Guardiola to Nagelsmann now, coaches come and go but Bayern's grip on the league remains intact. And no team in the league could pose a threat to their hegemony since Juergen Klopp's 'Gegenpressing' fired Dortmund to their second back-to-back title in 2012.
Otherwise, Bundesliga has been all about Bayern Munich. In 2015, they set the record for the earliest ever league win, sealing the deal with six matches to go.
This time, Robert Lewandowski and Co. settled the latest championship with 'mia san mia' mentality, with three games remaining. Bayern have been brilliant. But are they not making Bundesliga boring too? No wonder, Bundesliga faces a call for revamp. Donata Hopfen, the German Football League CEO, is open to the idea of an end-of-the-season championship playoffs, dividing opinion among the fans and clubs.
