As expected, FC Bayern Munich will be growing in the coming season. With right-back Noussair Mazraoui, the German record champion uses the Dutch champions Ajax Amsterdam. Midfielder Ryan Gravenberch is also said to be about to move to Munich. Good for Bayern: No transfer fee is due for defensive man Mazraoui, whose transfer means an additional option for head coach Julian Nagelsmann in the full-back position. The 24-year-old’s contract with the Netherlands expires at the end of the season.
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Because Niklas Süle is already leaving Munich free of charge in the direction of Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund and the German industry leader also has to show a sense of proportion in the transfer market against the background of the corona pandemic, this is a significant factor. In addition: Munich have not done badly in the past with free transfers. Of the SPORTBUZZER, the sports portal of the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), provides an overview of the most valuable FCB purchases without a fee in recent years.
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There are no two opinions when Robert Lewandowski changes. The Polish attacker went the opposite way from Süle, moving from BVB to Säbener Straße in 2014/15 after his contract expired (market value at the time according to transfermarkt.de 50 million euros). And the Lewandowski deal turned out to be a masterly move: the striker was top scorer in the Bundesliga five more times at FCB, and as the undisputed number one in the attack center in Munich’s dress, he collected eight German championships, three DFB Cup victories and a Champions League title and has also been named FIFA World Player of the Year twice. 344 goals in 375 competitive games speak for themselves.
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To this day, Lewandowski is indispensable at Bayern, although the star striker has made a transfer to the top Spanish club FC Barcelona is associated. Leon Goretzka has also developed into a similarly important pillar of the team. Like Lewandowski, the midfielder did not cost the German record champions 2018/19 a fee when he moved to the Bavarian capital from FC Schalke 04. The 27-year-old sits in midfield next to Joshua Kimmich and is now indispensable under current coach Julian Nagelsmann.
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If you are looking for the next free transfer that plays or has played a major role in Munich, you have to dig deeper. In recent years, players like Tanguy Nianzou, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Sebastian Rudy and Sebastian Rode have joined the record champions for free, but they are or were not pillars of the team. It was different with Ivica Olic: The Croatian moved from Hamburger SV to FCB on a free transfer for the 2009/2010 season and has put in quite an impressive performance in his three years.
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All Bayern fans will remember the 2009/10 Champions League season in particular, in which Olic became a guarantee of success. The 104-cap Croatia international finished second in the scorer list with seven goals behind superstar Lionel Messi. Not least with a brilliant performance in the semi-final second leg against Olympique Lyon, in which Olic scored all the goals in Bayern’s 3-0 win, the attacker shot into the hearts of the fans. However, Bayern lost the final in Madrid 2-0 to an overwhelming Inter Milan. Overall, Olic scored 23 goals in 80 competitive games for Bayern before moving on to league rivals VfL Wolfsburg.
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Claudio Pizarro also became the darling of the public. Although the Peruvian striker cost almost 7.5 million euros for his first engagement in the 2001/02 season, the German record champions didn’t pay a cent for his return to FCB for the 2012/2013 season. He would have been worth the money: With 125 goals for Bayern, Pizarro is eleventh in Munich’s all-time top scorer list – ahead of club legends like Franck Ribéry (124), Mario Gomez (113) and Lothar Matthäus (100 ). After his return to Bayern on a free transfer, Pizarro was also able to celebrate a number of titles: he won the Bundesliga three times, the DFB Cup twice and even the Champions League once, in the German final against BVB.
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Sufficiently successful role models for the free transfer Mazraoui can also be found in the recent history of the Munich club. In addition to Nianzou and Choupo-Moting, he meets other professionals at FCB in Omar Richards and Alexander Nübel (currently on loan to AS Monaco), whose services Bayern secured free of charge. However, they have not yet left their lasting footsteps at FC Bayern.
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