My boyhood club is shaped by Franz Beckenbauer’s legacy, and for the last half-century has been run by former players

I congratulate my club on its anniversary. On Thursday, Bayern Munich will be 125 years old. The club was in my cradle, because my grandfather was and my father is a Bayern fan. When I was young, they told me a lot about the golden 70s with the three European Cup victories. They admired Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier and the other players. They were almost in awe of one of them: Franz Beckenbauer.

In the beginning, Bayern were one of many clubs. I have a few black-and-white pictures from the founding days in mind; I know the club history. But I can only really talk about it from the Beckenbauer era onwards, and since then Bayern have been something very special.