Why are Bayern Munich nicknamed FC Hollywood?

To say that Bayern Munich have it all to do in the second leg of Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final tie against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City would be something of an understatement. Yes, we’ve seen several monumental comebacks in the competition in recent years and the Bavarians, on their day, are capable of beating almost any team by three goals or more. Whether that applies to a slick City side coached by Pep Guardiola, however, must be up for debate.

It doesn’t help either that Bayern are far from being in their best shape. We’ve become used to seeing them cruise to the Bundesliga title – they’ve won it a frankly boring 10 times in a row – but they face a serious fight to retain their crown this season, with Borussia Dortmund just two points behind them in the standings with six games left to play.

When was the nickname FC Hollywood coined and why?

There have been problems on the field, as proved by three defeats in their last six games, while a whole host of off-field issues will surely not have helped and have led to suggestions that FC Hollywood, a ‘classic’ Bayern nickname, are back with a vengeance. Forward Thomas Müller himself even made reference to it in a past interview.

The Bavarians were, of course, already Germany’s biggest club in the 1990s, although their domestic dominance was not nearly as extensive as it currently is (17 of their 31 league victories have come since 2000). Bayern managed four Bundesliga titles during that decade but also became known for colourful characters at the club getting involved in a series of spats and disputes and generally getting up to no good, much of which made the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

To name just a couple of examples, the controversial Steffen Effenberg having an affair with model Claudia Strunz, the wife of teammate Thomas Strunz, while the legendary Lothar Matthäus challenged Jürgen Klinsmann to a “TV duel” after the pair had had a falling out, going some way to costing Bayern the title in 1996.

Managers came and went at an unprecedented rate (they had eight in total in the 90s), while the club even flirted with relegation in 1991-92 season. To summarise, there was always some kind of drama going on.

FC Hollywood in 2022-23

Two decades of almost non-stop success followed and those days appeared to be long gone. Until, that is, they came back with a bang earlier this season.

Thomas Tuchel replacing Julian Nagelsmann somewhat out of the blue less than three weeks ago is not even the most recent example. The latter of the two had seen his team knocked off the top of the Bundesliga table by a fine Borussia Dortmund team but would still have been confident of regaining top spot in the remaining weeks of the season, particularly with a home game against their title rivals right around the corner. Chief executive Oliver Kahn, an FC Hollywood legend, said the squad wasn’t showing its true potential, which they haven’t done since Tuchel came in either (two wins and two defeats in five matches, along with almost certain Champions League elimination).

Sadio Mané's record fine

Since Tuchel’s arrival, and after the bruising first-leg defeat to City, Sadio Mané was handed a reported €350,000 fine by the club for punching teammate Leroy Sane, who was left with a busted lip.

Earlier in the season, first-choice goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer broke his tibia and fibula on a skiing trip following the 2022 World Cup, for which he received criticism from the club’s top management. Weeks later, however, he blasted back at Bayern for sacking goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalovic, who Neuer was close to.

Midfielder Leon Goretzka also angered the board by public criticising club sponsor Qatar, while attacker Serge Gnaby was called ‘amateurship’ for jetting off to the Paris Fashion Week on a day off between training and matches.

A happy ending for FC Hollywood?

FC Hollywood might well be back, then, but given that a Hollywood script is what they need to dump Manchester City out of the Champions League on Wednesday, maybe that could work in their favour this time.