FC Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich

	Foundation	1946
	Arena	SAP Garden
	Championships	Basketball Bundesliga / EuroLeague
	Coach	Anton Gavel
	Famous players who have played for the club	Serge Ibaka / Greg Monroe / Derrick Williams

Player to watch : Andreas Obst

Some describe him as Europe’s best shooter, whilst others say he has one of the best jump shots on the planet. Standing at 1.91m tall, Andreas Obst is now a benchmark in his position across the Old Continent. Born on 13 July 1996, he made his professional debut at the age of 16 in the German third division. This was followed by 13 years in Germany with seven different clubs, eventually becoming the leader of Bayern Munich.

Beyond the BBL titles he has won, the scoring guard is best known for his exploits with the national team. As reigning world and European champion, he was the driving force behind Germany’s iconic victory over Team USA in 2023 (113-111). His shooting mechanics, as quick as they are clinical, give him a wide range of options: catch-and-shoot, step-back and even playmaking. Over time, he has also made huge strides off the ball, to the point where he is sometimes used as a defensive lockdown specialist. In fact, you might well find his name a little further down the list…

Playing style

A new chapter is beginning in Munich. Following a rather lacklustre off-season, the German side has decided to make a 180ºC U-turn with the appointment of Anton Gavel. Gone are the days when Bayern constantly took their time to build up their attacks. From now on, everything will move faster! There’s more instinct and freedom in the decision-making of the backcourt players, all with the same aim: to put the shooters in the best possible position or to exploit mismatches.

Then, once the ball is in the opponents’ hands, Bayern Munich switch to maximum aggression. Tactically very disciplined, they apply significant pressure to force the ball-carrier into a mistake. This team does not hesitate to switch defence to disrupt any attempts to penetrate as much as possible. Their aim through these tactics: to dictate the pace of the game.

Club history

Bayern Munich’s basketball department was founded in 1946. Initially a passionate footballer and later a pioneer of basketball in Germany, Franz Kronberger steered the Bavarian club towards its first major successes. These were not long in coming, as less than a decade after its creation the club won back-to-back league titles (1954–1955) . This successful start continued until the late 1970s. Following a 1966 BBL semi-final narrowly lost to the eventual champions Heidelberg, Bayern won their first national cup in 1968. It was the last trophy before a loooong dry spell.

The post-Kronberger era proved particularly painful. In their own city alone, Bayern slipped behind USC Munich in the pecking order. Although the club managed to stay in the top flight for eight seasons, they then suddenly plummeted into the lower divisions. The decline was so severe that the Munich side even found themselves playing matches at regional level. Led by their first star, Klaus Schulz, the club finally clawed its way out of the depths to reach the top flight again in 1982. But for the rest of the decade, the team bounced back and forth between the first and second divisions. Their only highlight was reaching the semi-finals of the national cup in 1987.

Instability persisted in Bavaria, however. Just under 20 years before its first spell, Bayern Munich found itself back in the regional leagues. More broadly, the Munich side languished in the lower divisions until 2008, when they returned to the second division. The difference this time was that the idea of returning to the top flight in Germany became a priority for the club’s leadership. ‘Mission Aufstieg’ was officially launched! To achieve these goals, Uli Hoeneß – the club’s president – handed the reins of the red and white team to Dirk Bauermann in the summer of 2010. With a squad completely revamped from top to bottom under his command, he led his team back to the BBL in the space of a single season.

Bayern Munich finally saw the light at the end of a tunnel that had stretched back over half a century. After reaching the semi-finals in two consecutive seasons, Malcolm Delaney’s side – the first regular-season MVP in the club’s history – clinched the 2014 championship in Game 5. It had been 59 years since the Bavarians had last reached the pinnacle of German basketball. An exceptional campaign, all the more so as they made their EuroLeague debut that very same year. The Svetislav Pesic era concluded with two national finals in two years. One transitional season later, the men under new head coach Aleksandar Đorđević achieved Bayern’s finest season of all time: their first domestic double (Cup and Championship) coupled with a semi-final appearance in the EuroCup (C2).

The Munich side went on to rack up 14 regular-season wins in the EuroLeague – a record that remains their best in the competition to this day. All of this was capped off by a solid back-to-back victory. From 2020 to 2023, Bayern Munich shone particularly brightly in Europe, where they became the first German team to reach the play-offs in FIBA’s premier competition. Along the way, they also secured two domestic cups and two league titles. Despite losing the BBL title in 2026, the club has established itself as THE face of German basketball.

awards and honors

	German Champion	1954, 1955 / 2014 / 2018 / 2019 / 2024 / 2025
	German Cup	1968 / 2018 / 2021 / 2023 / 2024

Zoom : Markus Bernhard

In its early years, Bayern Munich had a certain Markus Bernhard on its roster. A two-time German champion with MTSV Schwabing (1947 and 1949) and later with Bayern (1954 and 1955), he was then the key player under Franz Kronberger.

But alongside this illustrious career in soccer, the German international was also… a handball player! There, too, he competed at the highest level, winning two world championships on grass and one in indoor handball. A career path that is, to say the least, unusual for a top-level athlete.