Stars, stripes, and silverware: Bayern Munich’s American connection explained
From academy prospects to first-team contributors, Bayern Munich’s ties to American soccer talent run deeper than many may realize in Europe.
Bayern Munich have enjoyed pretty much nonstop success since the 1970s, winning 33 of their 35 Bundesliga titles in that time, including 11 in a row between 2012-13 and 2022-23. They have been aided along the way by several Americans, although only a little.
Alphonso Davies leads the North American impact
Canada’s Alphonso Davies has almost certainly been the club’s most successful import from North America, developing into a world-class left-back on his way to winning 15 trophies since joining from Vancouver Whitecaps in 2019.
No American player has come close to matching that impact, although six have made appearances for one of world soccer’s biggest clubs, which is still quite the achievement.
That group includes two current USMNT players, Chris Richards and Malik Tillman.
The Tillman brothers’ Bayern journeys
Alongside his brother Timothy, now playing for LAFC, Malik Tillman joined Bayern’s youth academy in 2015, eventually progressing to the first-team squad in 2021. The attacking midfielder played seven games, including against Barcelona in the Champions League in December 2021, and scored once in the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup.
After loan spells at Rangers in Scotland and PSV, Tillman joined the Dutch club permanently for a season before returning to Germany, where he was born, with Bayer Leverkusen in July 2025.
Timothy Tillman, meanwhile, played a full season with Bayern’s reserve team but left the club without making a first-team appearance in January 2020. He returned to Greuther Fürth, the club he originally joined Bayern from, before moving to LAFC in February 2023.
Chris Richards and a Champions League cameo
Richards signed for Bayern from FC Dallas after a 10-day trial. The defender played 38 times for the reserve team and made 10 senior appearances, including three in the Champions League, before a loan spell at Hoffenheim and a transfer to Crystal Palace in July 2022.
The center-back became only the second American to win the FA Cup, after Tim Howard’s, with Palace’s 2025 win.
Taylor Booth: a one-game wonder
Richards overlapped with Taylor Booth, who swapped the Real Salt Lake academy for Bayern’s in January 2019. The Utah-born midfielder made just one senior appearance, in a domestic cup game, before moving to the Netherlands. After spells with Utrecht, Booth is now with Twente.
Julian Green and a forgotten Bayern stint
Between 2013 and 2016, Julian Green, who was born in Tampa but moved to Germany as a child, played four times for Bayern, scoring once, also in the DFB-Pokal.
Green signed for Stuttgart in December 2016 and then moved to Greuther Fürth in the summer of 2017, where he has remained ever since. The 15-time USMNT cap has spent most of his career in 2. Bundesliga, but did spend a season in the German top flight in 2021-22.
Landon Donovan’s brief Bayern chapter
Before Green, it is easy to forget that Landon Donovan, the United States’ joint all-time leading goalscorer, had a brief loan spell in Munich.
Having started his professional career in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen, Donovan temporarily moved to Bayern from LA Galaxy before the start of the MLS season in 2009.
The forward played seven times and failed to score before returning to Los Angeles, where he remained until 2014. Donovan came out of retirement for the first time for a nine-game spell with the Galaxy in 2016, and for a second time to play eight games for Mexican side León in 2018.
Wolfgang Sühnholz: the most used American at Bayern
But the American who has played the most games for Bayern Munich is Wolfgang Sühnholz, who made 36 appearances between 1971 and 1973, lining up alongside legendary names such as Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller.
Sühnholz, who was born in Berlin but later settled in the United States after initially moving to Canada towards the end of his playing career, won the Bundesliga in 1971-72 but then suffered a broken leg that kept him sidelined for two years.
After eventually returning, the midfielder played in North America, including for Vancouver Whitecaps in the NASL. He later held various coaching roles within the U.S. Soccer Federation between 1996 and 2001. Sühnholz died in Georgetown, Texas, at the age of 73 in December 2019.
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