The title had been confirmed hours earlier after nearest challengers RB Leipzig lost to Borussia Dortmund. COURTESY
Bayern Munich celebrated being crowned champions of Germany for the ninth straight season in style as Robert Lewandowski's hat-trick helped them thrash Borussia Monchengladbach.
The title had been confirmed hours earlier after nearest challengers RB Leipzig lost to Borussia Dortmund. A Lewandowski double plus Thomas Muller and Kingsley Coman strikes gave Bayern a 4-0 half-time lead. Lewandowski's third came from a penalty before Leroy Sane added a sixth. Bayern finished with 10 men when 18-year-old substitute Tanguy Nianzou was shown a straight red card for a challenge. Leipzig, who started the day seven points behind the leaders with three games remaining, lost 3-2 to Dortmund. England's Jadon Sancho doubled Dortmund's lead after Marco Reus got the first goal. Lukas Klostermann and Dani Olmo made it 2-2 before Sancho's winner confirmed Bayern as champions before their game with Monchengladbach. Dortmund's win lifted them to fourth spot to boost their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League.
In April, Bayern announced Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann would join them on a five-year contract at the end of this season after current boss Hansi Flick said he wanted to leave the club. Nagelsmann certainly has big shoes to fill; Saturday's title was the seventh trophy Bayern has won in the space of year. The team's swashbuckling style of football has earned plenty of plaudits, but the Munich club also won praise last month for refusing to join the European Super League. Along with the likes of French champion Paris Saint-Germain and Portuguese champion Porto, Bayern defied Europe's other top teams by rejecting a spot in the competition, which was heavily criticized by fans and stakeholders. Initially backed by 12 clubs, all except Real Madrid and Barcelona have subsequently withdrawn. “Being a big club is not just about having a global fan base, it's acting properly at the right time,” said Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville after the 12 teams initially involved were revealed. “Bayern Munich, I have to say that I've always thought that they were a decent club when I was playing against them.”
Bayern's decision to reject the Super League was borne out of the 50+1 ownership model, which stipulates that the majority of the voting rights at German clubs are controlled by the members and fans, rather than commercial partners. By contrast, other top clubs in Europe, such as those in the English Premier League, are owned and controlled by private investors. “The clubs (in Germany), the majority of it anyway, are organized along these democratic lines and that creates a degree of accountability that is much, much stronger than the ones from investors who, rightly or wrongly, but from their point of view, factually, see members or fans simply as customers,” European football expert Raphael Honigstein told CNN Sport. “In Germany, they are not. (Fans) have a right, they are constituents, they can vote and they can make their voices heard. “That, of course, also creates a different culture because the people in charge are not investors, because you cannot buy and sell a club, the club is always in the hands of the members.”
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