7 of Bayern Munich's Best Big Game Players of the Modern Era - Ranked

Bayern Munich are not only the most successful club in German history, they're also one of the most successful clubs in world football. The size of their trophy cabinet is larger than your average person's living quarters - boasting a quite ridiculous 72 trophies when all is totted up.

With that amount of success, it's no surprise that myriad 'big game players' have represented the Bavarian club. To list all of these players throughout history would be madness - we wouldn't be talking about a one page 90min article, it would be more like the size of a George R.R Martin set of novels.

With that in mind, honourable mentions must be given to club legends Franz Beckenbauer, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Gerd Muller, Lothar Matthaus and Sepp Maier, to name but a few.

For this list, we'll take a closer look at the modern day greats who have inspired Bayern Munich to more recent successes, and continued the club's incredible legacy.

7. Philipp Lahm

One of the greatest captains ​Bayern and Germany have ever seen, Philipp Lahm also defined himself as one of the most consistent full-backs in modern football.

During his time in Bavaria, Lahm won the Bundesliga a whopping eight times, the DFB-Pokal on six occasions, and captained the team to Champions League glory in 2012/13, as Bayern completed the treble that season.

And on the off chance his trophy cabinet doesn't impress you, maybe these words from Pep Guardiola, who managed Lahm for three seasons in Munich, will.

"He is one of the most fantastic players I ever trained in my life and one of the most intelligent. Football is going to miss one of the best players ever. He can play in 10 positions, no problems because he understands the game perfectly." 

Biggest Moment: A little use of artistic license here. While no-one can deny Lahm consistently performed well on the big stage for Bayern Munich, he wasn't one for grabbing the headlines. The full-back's biggest moment came for Germany during the 2006 World Cup, when Lahm scored the opening goal of the tournament for the hosts against Costa Rica.

6. Oliver Kahn

From one legendary Bayern Munich captain to another. With a staggering 623 appearances for the club, in which he won eight Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokal, one UEFA Cup and one Champions League trophy, Oliver Kahn is not only regarded as one of the best German goalkeepers of all time, but simply one of the best to have ever graced the sport.

Over the course of his career the goalkeeper won four consecutive UEFA Best European Goalkeeper awards and two German footballer of the year awards. But most impressively, he's the only goalkeeper in the history of the World Cup to win the Golden Ball award as he did in 2002, after dragging a poor German national team to the final against Brazil.

Biggest Moment: Penalty heroics in the 2001 Champions League final. After the game went to spot-kicks, Kahn made three saves from Valencia penalties, including the vital save to clinch the win - diving to his right and using the backs of his clenched fists to beat the shot away. Unorthodox and ugly, but that was the essence of Kahn. In helping the club win the 2001 Champions League trophy, the goalkeeper managed to exorcise those demons from that night in Barcelona two years before.

5. Franck Ribery

​One of the greatest forwards of modern-day football. So great, you might argue, that in a parallel universe in which Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo didn't roam the Earth, the Frenchman may have been considered the best player on the planet during parts of his career in Bavaria.

He won a record nine Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokal and the Champions League during his 12 years in Munich, becoming an institution at the club.

Biggest Moment: Pipping Schalke to the title in 2010. As Bayern travelled to league leaders Schalke (who were two points ahead of Bayern) with six games remaining, Ribery inspired the Bavarian giants to a 2-1 win at the Veltins-Arena, scoring the opening goal of the game. Schalke never recovered. Bayern returned to the summit and stayed there, lifting the Bundesliga title at the end of the season.

4. Bastian Schweinsteiger

The face of modern Bayern Munich - Bastian Schweinsteiger epitomises the success of the club and was a truly world-class player.

After signing with Bayern as a youth team player at the age of just 13, the local boy from Bavaria had a glittering career with the club. In total, he won eight Bundesliga titles, seven DFB-Pokal and the Champions League.

Biggest Moment: Not many players can say they've won their side a league title by scoring a goal with a backheel, but Schweinsteiger can. The German midfielder scored the cheeky effort in a 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in 2013, and in doing so confirmed Bayern as Bundesliga champions.​

3. Robert Lewandowski

​​Robert Lewandowski has been Bayern Munich's X-factor for a number of years now. Since his move from German rivals Borussia Dortmund in 2015, the Polish striker has just about managed to break every record going - or near enough. 

He's scored over 200 goals in the Bundesliga, making him the the league's all-time leading foreign goalscorer. He also famously scored five times in nine minutes against Wolfsburg in 2015. To put that into perspective, it usually takes Crystal Palace six or seven games to score that many goals.

He's won the Bundesliga in all five of his seasons at the Allianz Arena, and been top goalscorer in the league in four of those. 

Biggest Moment: Scored two goals as Bayern beat RB Leipzig 3-0 in the 2019 DFB-Pokal final. By doing so, he became the the all-time top goalscorer in German Cup finals with six, proving his status as a big game player.

2. Stefan Effenberg

​Despite an uninspiring first spell at the club, Effenberg truly made his mark at Bayern Munich upon his return in 1998.

Nicknamed "Der Tiger" for his ferocious personality, the German midfielder led the club to three Bundesliga titles and two European Cup finals in the space of four years as captain. Whilst he might not thank me for mentioning the first of those European Cup finals, he'd be more than happy to reminisce about the one two years later...

Biggest Moment: His crowning moment is undoubtedly the penalty he scored to equalise against Valencia in the 2001 Champions League final, which Bayern went on to win.

1. Arjen Robben

During his time at Bayern Munich, Arjen Robben has won eight Bundesliga titles, five DFB-Pokal and a Champions League trophy - not bad for a player whose only skill is to cut in from the right and leather the ball with his left foot, eh?

But Robben's not only been a part of Bayern's trophy hoarding over the past decade, he's been at the forefront of it. He was at the heart of their destruction of ​Barcelona in the 2012/13 Champions League semi-final, having inspired them to victory over ​Real Madrid at the same stage of the competition the previous season. However, he saved his best for the Champions League final of 2013...

Biggest Moment: After Robben set up Mario Mandzukic to score the opening goal of the all-German Champions League final at Wembley in 2013, Dortmund soon levelled things up. It was Robben to the rescue again - steaming through the Dortmund defence and delicately placing the ball past Roman Weidenfeller, confirming Bayern as the new European champions.