The story of Bayern's goalkeeping greats

Bayern's Bundesliga history starts in 1965 when they were promoted to the top flight. Their first game was an away derby defeat to neighbours 1860, and it was a historic day for another reason: it was the first of 473 Bundesliga appearances for goalkeeper Josef Dieter Maier, better known as Sepp.

They say goalkeepers are a bit different, and Maier himself confessed that "you have to be insane to do this job willingly". What was also crazy was what Maier did between the posts to make his club not only the biggest of his native Bavaria, but also of Germany and one of the biggest in the world.

It took Thomas Müller's incredible career to see Maier's tally of 709 competitive games for Bayern surpassed. But without Maier, Müller would probably have not been at Bayern.

Watch: Sepp Maier - the Cat from Anzing

Die Katze von Anzing - the Cat from Anzing, as Maier was nicknamed - helped build Bayern, the club he joined in 1958 having been a striker in his youth and playing in goal "as a joke", as he put it, for TSV Haar to the east of Munich. He backstopped the club's first Bundesliga title in 1968/69 - his first of four - just four seasons into their top-flight history, and was a key part of the squad along with the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller that won three successive European Cups - the predecessor of the UEFA Champions League - between 1974 and 1976, establishing a legacy that all those who came after had to live up to.

He still holds two Bundesliga records, neither likely to ever be broken: he played 442 consecutive Bundesliga matches - all for Bayern - between 1966 and 1979, including 245 matches from April 1972 to June 1979 when he played every minute. His chasing a duck across the pitch during a game against Bochum on 15 May 1976 cemented his legend as not only a great goalkeeper, but also a joker, befitting his philosophy that, "a keeper should give off a sense of calm, and not fall asleep while doing so."

He would surely have made more Bundesliga appearances - and won more trophies - but for two reasons. One, is that back-up Fritz Kosar, who had came off the bench to play as a right-winger in the promotion play-off round that lifted Bayern into the Bundesliga, featured in three games in the club's maiden Bundesliga season. They were the only three of his career, including his appearance on the final matchday of the campaign before he retired from the professional game after 20 years at Bayern.

The second is the serious car crash Maier had in summer 1979 that endangered his life and ultimately ended his career. He did return to training four months later after having life-saving surgery organised by his former teammate and then Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness, but he would only make one more appearance: in his own testimonial, which - true to form - was like none ever before or since.

When Maier resumed training, Bayern coach Pal Csernai made it clear he had promoted Maier's young former back-up, Walter Junghans - who is now the club's reserve team goalkeeping coach - leaving no space for the veteran in the days when football was not a squad game. Maier, however, was not going to have his boss ruin his farewell match.

"When Csernai wanted to have a say in the line-up, I gave him a piece of my mind," said Maier of team selection for the goalkeeper's testimonial at Munich's Olympiastadion. Csernai left the stadium, but 78,000 grateful Bayern fans stayed to bid an undisputed legend of the game farewell.

In the next 14 years, Bayern won seven Bundesliga titles with Belgian great Jean-Marie Pfaff lifting three in his gloved hands, while Manfred Müller, Junghans, Sven Scheuer, Raimond Aumann, Uwe Gospodarek, Gerald Hillringhaus, Michael Probst and even the iconic Toni Schumacher - who played just eight games for Bayern in the middle of the 1991/92 season - all contributing. But then came Oliver Kahn.

It did not start well after he was brought in from Karlsruhe in summer 1994 to replace Aumann as the number one. An ACL injury meant he missed a large mid-section of the season - Scheuer stood in - but when he returned, Bayern won six of the final eight league matches of the campaign and set the foundation for Kahn's epic 14-year Bayern career.

Maier, who was Bayern's goalkeeping coach from 1994 to 2008 and had the same role with the Germany national team from 1988 to 2004, had more than a hand in ensuring Kahn wore his nickname, The Titan, well.

Watch: Oliver Kahn - the Titan

"I quickly said to myself, 'You think you're good? Forget it!" Kahn admitted after a testing early training session with Maier. "There was another level of goalkeeping that you could reach, and Sepp Maier quickly explained that with his drills, and made clear what I needed to realise: there was a lot of work to be done."

He did it, first winning the 1995/96 UEFA Cup before claiming the first of his eight Bundesliga titles the following season that were then joined by six DFB Cups and the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League, where The Titan saved three penalties in the victorious shootout against Valencia. In addition to outrageous success, Kahn also shared a sense of humour with Maier. 

After receiving a red card for committing a second bookable offence by punching the ball into the opporsition net from a corner during at game at Hansa Rostock, Kahn cheekily claimed, "That was a clear goal. I always thought a goalkeeper could use his hands in the penalty area." After scoring an own-goal for Israel in a friendly in 2002, he told media, "I was captain for the first time, so I simply had to score a goal." It was a great line, but like all great lines, wasn't quite true: it was not the first of the 49 times he would lead his country in his 86 appearances.

The last of those internationals - both as captain and player - came in the 2006 World Cup third-place play-off, but he played on at Bayern for another two years as Michael Rensing was groomed as his successor. Though not a Bavarian, Rensing joined the club aged 16 in 2000, and was immediately tipped to take over from Kahn when the time came. When it did come to step out of the great man's shadow in 2008, Rensing struggled in the glare of the spotlight.

The Neu-er number one

He made just 30 Bundesliga appearances for Bayern after Kahn's departure, with the more experienced Hans-Jörg Butt - a 2002 Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League runner-up with Bayer Leverkusen - taking over. Another youngster in Thomas Kraft was given a 12-game burst in the 2010/11 season, but Butt, then in his mid-30s, was the mainstay of the side until the start of a third - and still current - goalkeeping dynasty in Neuer in 2011.

"I am really looking forward to this huge and exciting challenge at Bayern," the then 25-year-old Neuer said. "Many of my international teammates will be my teammates in Munich. Therefore I won't be going into a new environment and will certainly settle in quickly."

He had the veteran Tom Starke as back-up at first, but has since been supported notably by Pepe Reina, Sven Ulreich and Yann Sommer on a journey that has seen him make over 550 competitive appearances for Bayern with more than 360 in the Bundesliga.

A foot fracture that plagued him between 2016 and 2018 and lower leg fracture - sustained on an ill-advised skiiing trip - in 2022 are the only times when Neuer's place between the posts has been taken by others on a long-term basis, however.

Watch: Manuel Neuer - The sweeper keeper

His consistently high quality performances have made him a mainstay of the most dominant force the Bundesliga has seen as he helped secure 11 straight top-flight titles, as well as five DFB Cups and two UEFA Champions Leagues. Those European triumphs completed previously unprecedented trebles. 

Silverware isn't everything though. Bernd Dreher, Kahn's number two for a decade, played just 13 Bundesliga games for Bayern, and never featured in European competition or the DFB Cup for them. Yet, he has winner's medals from all of them. No, more than the silverware, Neuer has changed goalkeeping forever by using his feet almost as effectively as his hands.

"With Neuer there was the first big change. What he did at the 2014 World Cup had a big influence on what came after that," said Real Madrid and Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. "The goalkeeper was no longer just the one who had to stop the ball."

Despite upping expectations in terms of a goalkeeper's distribution with his feet, Neuer has stopped the ball better than most in the history of the game, never mind in Germany or just at Bayern. But in the year he turns 39, Neuer knows his goalkeeping days are numbered.

It was a enforced change, and it is a little early to be talking about a changing of the guard, but Jonas Urbig replacing the injured Neuer in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie with Leverkusen did give us a glimpse of the ghost of Bayern's goalkeeping future.

"I think if he had played for Bayern this season, he would have played a few games. And I expect that next season there will be at least two because of the cup games in which I am out," said Neuer of winter arrival Urbig, who could have Alexander Nübel - one Bundesliga appearance for Bayern since signing from Schalke in 2020 - for competition when his two-season loan at VfB Stuttgart ends in 2026.

"It is true that there is a certain agreement and that we also try to ensure that Jonas can develop further. And he can only do that if he plays. So, in consultation with the coach and also with our goalkeeping team, there will also be games where Jonas plays."

Urbig is the man between the posts for now with Neuer out injured, going ahead of Daniel Peretz and the experienced Ulreich in the pecking order. But whether it is Urbig, Nübel or someone else who takes over when Neuer finally calls it a day, they not only have his big gloves to fill, but Bayern's incredible goalkeeping legacy to live up to.