By Aliyu Yakubu Yusuf
For the past 10 years, Bayern Munich have enjoyed a complete monopoly on the Bundesliga title. They often won it at a canter with no legitimate threat from any of the other German league big guns like Dortmund, Leverkusen and Leipzig. That’s why when Bayern lost their penultimate game at home to Leipzig, an unexpected door was opened for Dortmund to pip Bayern to the title.
It’s human nature to always side with the underdog. That’s why almost all neutral football fans rallied around Dortmund to get the job done at home to ninth-placed Mainz. However, Dortmund’s players didn’t read the script. They contrived to miss chance after chance and conceded two goals at the other end in the first half that, extinguished their title ambition. Even Bayern players can’t believe their luck at full-time. In short, Dortmund managed to hand over the Bundesliga title back to Bayern on a platter of gold.
Dortmund players were crestfallen at full-time. They were well aware of the fact that this is their lifetime opportunity to slap Bayern’s painful dominance of the Bundesliga. And they bottled it.
Spare a thought for the legendary Marco Reus. This is a player who sacrificed winning titles elsewhere in favour of loyalty to his boyhood club, and all he got was an absolute spanking from the club he snubbed several times. This is a player who missed the World Cup triumph in 2014 through injury, only for him to watch his beloved Germany triumph at the Maracana in the showpiece event. Surely he deserved to end his career with a flourish.
It will take ages (perhaps another decade) for Bayern Munich to have another poor season for other Bundesliga clubs to have a sniff at the title. Bayern are head and shoulders above all the other clubs in terms of history, prestige, revenue, worldwide support, you name it. I think it is going to take a monumental collapse from Bayern and an out-of-the-world season from Dortmund and co before a different name is inscribed on the Bundesliga title.
