The biggest flop transfers of FC Bayern Munich

Created: 06/10/2022, 08:43

By: Stefan Schmid

FC Bayern Munich has made many transfers in its history.

However, some newcomers were disappointing - we have summarized some flops.

1 / 14 Breno, from January 2008 to 2012 at Bayern, 12 million euros transfer fee, 33 games for Bayern.

In the winter of 2008, the highly talented central defender came to Munich from FC São Paulo for a considerable fee.

Serious knee injuries kept throwing the Brazilian back.

After he set fire to his house in Grünwald under the influence of alcohol and drugs in 2011, he was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison.

After his early release, Breno returned to his youth club São Paulo.

© imago sport photo service

2 / 14Edson Braafheid, at FC Bayern from 2009 to January 2011, 2 million euros transfer fee, 19 games for FC Bayern. The Dutchman came to Säbener Straße as a requested transfer from Louis van Gaal, and mostly found himself on the bench.

Was loaned to Celtic Glasgow for six months in 2010 and left Munich for Hoffenheim at the beginning of 2011 on a free transfer.

© imago sport photo service

3 / 14Danijel Pranjić, from 2009 to 2012 at Bayern, 7.7 million euros transfer fee, 85 games for Bayern.

The Croatian switched from SC Heerenveen to Säbener Straße for a substantial fee.

Just like Braafheid, a request transfer from Louis van Gaal.

While Pranjić was regularly used under the Dutchman, this changed in the 2011/12 season under Jupp Heynckes.

The contract was not renewed and the full-back left the club for Sporting Lisbon on a free transfer.

A whopping minus business for FC Bayern.

© imago sport photo service

4 / 14Lukas Podolski, from 2006 to 2009 at Bayern, 10 million euros transfer fee, 106 games for Bayern (26 goals). Despite more than 100 appearances, Prince Poldi could never live up to the high expectations in Munich.

His career went better after leaving Munich.

In the meantime, the 2014 world champion has played for Arsenal London, Inter Milan, Galatasaray Istanbul and, of course, 1. FC Köln.

© imago sport photo service

5 / 14Landon Donovan, loaned out at FC Bayern from January to March 2009, made 7 appearances (no goal) for FC Bayern. Loaned from LA Galaxy during the Klinsmann era, the US boy was unable to get off to a good start in Germany either (previously at Bayer Leverkusen).

Those responsible in Munich were happy that they had not agreed to a permanent commitment and so they quickly parted ways again.

In the following years, Donovan was twice loaned out by Los Angeles to Everton.

Here, too, short-term employment remained.

© imago sport photo service

6 / 14Vahid Hashemian, from 2004 to 2005 at Bayern, 2 million euros transfer fee, 15 games (one goal) for Bayern.

With the recommendation of 16 Bundesliga goals in the 2003/04 season, the helicopter switched from VfL Bochum to Munich.

But the competition for Makaay, Pizarro and Santa Cruz was too great.

The Iranian scored the only goal in the cup in a 7-0 win over SC Freiburg.

Hashemian initially stayed in Germany and found his way back to Bochum via Hanover.

In 2012 he ended his career.

© IMAGO/Sven Simon

7 / 14Jan Kirchhoff, from 2013 to January 2016 at Bayern, free transfer, 12 games for Bayern.

The central defender hardly got a chance in Munich and was loaned out to FC Schalke 04 after just six months.

The one and a half years with the Knappen were unlucky for Kirchhoff.

Injuries kept throwing him back.

After returning to Munich, things went a little better and so the misunderstanding was resolved and Kirchhoff was sold to Sunderland for 1 million euros.

The central defender has now ended his career.

© imago sport photo service

8 / 14Fiete Arp, with FC Bayern since 2019, 3 million euros transfer fee, one game for FC Bayern (1st team).

Fiete Arp moved from Hamburger SV to Munich in 2019 as the new German striker.

The former junior national player was never really able to gain a foothold, usually only played in the second team and was temporarily loaned out to Holstein Kiel with moderate success.

© Frank Wenzel/Eibner press photo via www.imago-images.de

9 / 14Buona Sarr, with FC Bayern since 2020, 8 million euros transfer fee, 26 games for Bayern.

The Senegalese moved from Olympique Marseille to Munich and never got beyond the role of backup.

In 2022, the right-back won the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal and played the full distance in every game there.

Due to injuries, he was never able to confirm his national team performances at FC Bayern.

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10 / 14José Ernesto Sosa, from 2007 to 2010 at FC Bayern, 9 million euros, 53 games (2 goals) for FC Bayern.

There he was loaned again after two years.

The playmaker never really arrived in Munich, the internal competition was too big and ripped off.

After leaving SSC Napoli, many other positions followed, including Sosa playing for well-known teams such as AC Milan and Atlético Madrid.

© imago sport photo service

11 / 14Andreas Görlitz, from 2004 to 2011 at Bayern, 2.5 million fee, 25 games for Bayern.

The Weilheimer came to Bayern in 2004 from freshly relegated local rivals 1860 Munich as Germany's full-back hope.

The debut for the DFB-Elf followed shortly after the move to Säbener Straße.

However, serious injuries thwarted the talented defensive man.

Nothing came of the big career and so Görlitz said goodbye to Ingolstadt in 2011.

© imago sport photo service

12 / 14Tobias Rau, from 2003 to 2005 at Bayern, 2.25 million euros transfer fee, 19 games for Bayern.

As a new national player, Rau came to Säbener Straße from VfL Wolfsburg.

But he was also repeatedly thrown back by injuries and was unable to secure a regular place in Bayern's star ensemble.

So he greeted with his blond hair mostly from the stands.

The former soccer professional now works as a teacher.

© IMAGO/Bernd Müller

13 / 14Jean-Pierre Papin, from 1994 to 1996 at Bayern, 2.75 million euros (5.5 million D-Mark) fee, 40 games (6 goals) for Bayern.

The world footballer from 1991 and newly crowned Champions League winner moved from AC Milan to Munich.

Also due to numerous injuries, Papin did not get going in his debut season.

Only 12 missions were recorded in the 94/95 season.

More appearances were to be made the following season, but the aging star was struggling to go the full distance.

After that, the interlude in Munich was over for the Frenchman and he moved back home to Girondins Bordeaux.

© IMAGO/Kicker/Liedl

14 / 14Renato Sanches, from 2016 to 2019 at Bayern, 35 million euros transfer fee, 52 games (2 goals) for Bayern.

The highly talented Portuguese came to Munich from Benfica Lisbon.

Already at the age of 18 he made his debut for the Portuguese national team and showed his skills there.

However, he could never really access his potential in Munich.

The young midfielder seemed almost inhibited by the high transfer fee that FCB paid for him.

With little success, Bayern loaned him to Swansea in the English Premier League before he moved to OSC Lille in 2019 for 20 million euros.

There Sanches was able to build on his old form and even became French champion in 2020/21.

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