An FC Bayern München Fan Journey.
FC Bayern München. More than just a football club.
Three months short of his tenth birthday, Rick Joshua embarked on what would quickly become a lifelong footballing love affair. FC Bayern München would end up losing their European Champions’ Cup semi-final against English champions Liverpool on away goals, but a flame had been lit. That flame still burns brightly, and Red Odyssey: An FC Bayern Fan Journey is the story.
Red Odyssey is the first history of FC Bayern München in English that has been written from a supporter’s perspective. To find out more, keep on scrolling down.
Photo source: author
The Pain and the Glory.
Covering the best part of four decades, the author provides his own memories of his time as a British supporter of Germany’s most famous football club, from hazardous missions watching late-night highlights and the pain of European final defeat in the 1980s through to the nadir of the early 1990s and the historic treble in 2013. Through the eyes of an ordinary fan, Red Odyssey covers the development of the Bavarian club, and its gradual transformation into a genuine world footballing power.
Red Odyssey is essentially an FC Bayern fan journey written primarily for FC Bayern fans, but there is something for everybody interested in the German game. Even supporters of Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund and SpVgg Vestenbergsgreuth.
Photo source: GaHetNa (Nationaal Archief NL) / Wikimedia Commons
Gelsenkirchen. 2nd May 1984.
As the rain continued to hammer down with the Bayern players desperately waiting for the final whistle, a ragged looking Norbert Nachtweih stood out from the crowd, looking more like a Nachtweib in his untucked shirt that resembled a bright red minidress clinging tightly to his torso. One might have thought that such a disturbing sight would have scared away the men in white, but instead they just kept flooding forward, their relentless passion matched by the Gelsenkirchen crowd.
What they are saying...
“If the recent story of FC Bayern München could have been written by the Brothers Grimm, this would be it. Many wonderful moments, and some memory-stirring nightmares too.”
Cristian Nyari, FC Bayern München US
“Incredibly detailed, this isn’t just a fan history. It’s the story of a club, its struggles, its sweat and its tears in all its glory.”
Michel Munger, Bayern Central
“Established fans of the Rekordmeister will reminisce, newer devotees get to play catch-up, and all football obsessives will immediately recognise themselves in Joshua’s stroll through his long-time love affair with the German juggernaut.”
Randall Hauk, Bundesliga Fanatic
Photo source: Jörg Gehlmann / Wikimedia Commons
Milan. 23rd May 2001.
With the ball comfortably nestled in the back of the opposition net, the scowling Effenberg gestured to his team mates, in particular an ecstatic Sammy Kuffour, the man whose pain and suffering had been witnessed by everyone two years earlier in Barcelona. A massive banner in the Bayern crowd had read 23.5.2001. Heute ist ein guter Tag, um Geschichte zu schreiben – “23.5.2001 – today is a good day to write history”. The fiercely determined Effenberg was the man to lead the team and make it happen.
