Bayern Munich reaffirmed their status as Germany’s team to beat in the upcoming 2025/26 Bundesliga season after prevailing 2-1 in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup. The Bavarians took the advantage after 18 minutes via Harry Kane, who capitalized on a loose error from an opponent and fired home the opener. The top scorer in Germany in each of the last two seasons, Kane nearly registered a brace only to be denied by Stuttgart goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow at the near post. He proved instrumental in Bayern’s second goal by teeing up Serge Gnabry at the edge of the box, who weighed up an inch-perfect cross to Luis Díaz, who headed home. Whilst Jamie Leweling was able to halve the deficit, the reigning DFB-Pokal winners were unable to find a second goal in the final four minutes before Bayern prevailed as the well-deserved champions. It was the 10th piece of silverware for Díaz since making the move to Europe in 2019, and it was yet another reminder of why he has everything it takes to be one of the signings of the Bundesliga season.
Bayern have drastically reduced their options in attack with Leroy Sané and Thomas Müller departing Munich on free transfers and Mathys Tel and Kingsley Coman joining Tottenham Hotspur and Al-Nassr on permanent deals. They’ve also lost their creative talisman Jamal Musiala until the new year after the German fractured his left fibula and sustained ligament damage in a FIFA Club World Cup quarter final against Paris Saint-Germain. The Rekordmeister currently have four available senior attackers as they prepare for Friday’s match against RB Leipzig: Kane, Gnabry, Michael Olise and Díaz. Due to such limited options in the final third, there’s reason to believe that Bayern will be on the lookout for a supplementary attacker in the last few weeks of the summer transfer window, with Nick Woltemade, Christopher Nkunku and Xavi Simons amongst the many options being linked with a move to the Allianz Arena.
No matter who joins, however, Luis Díaz is going to have a massive role to play in attack. He first made a name for himself as one of the best wingers in Europe during the 2021/22 season for Portuguese giants Porto, excelling at driving forward and maneuvering past webs of opponents before firing a missile at goal. He racked up 14 goals and put Porto on the path to a domestic double before making the move to Anfield in January 2022. Upon learning of Tottenham Hotspur’s ambitions to sign Díaz, Liverpool decided to change their summer transfer plans and sign Díaz for a reported €45m with €15m in add-ons. It proved to be a bargain: Díaz continued his ascent into the game’s best wingers, with the Colombian racking up 41 goals and 23 assists in 148 matches and helping Liverpool leave their mark in England and Europe.
Capable of delivering incisive crosses and leaving his fullback in the dust with an elaborate pirouette, Díaz never skipped on his defensive duties and proved instrumental both under Jürgen Klopp and Arne Slot in terms of setting the pace for Liverpool’s counter-pressing unit as well as getting back to defend on the counter. In just over three years, he was able to secure all four of the top-level trophies in English football – the Community Shield, EFL Cup, and FA Cup – before completing the quartet in the 2024/25 season and helping Liverpool reclaim the Premier League title from Manchester City’s grasp.
It’s precisely these attributes that motivated Bayern to invest the vast majority of their transfer budget on: apart from Díaz, who joined from Liverpool on July 30 for €75m including add-ons, Bayern have signed just two players. Both of these players – Tom Bischof and Jonathan Tah – looked set to join on free transfers only for Bayern to have to foot the bill and pay their clubs a combined €2.3m so that they could join prior to the start of the FIFA Club World Cup. Whilst Bayern undoubtedly have some work to be done as they look to beef up their attacking arsenal with a potential deadline day signing, there’s reason to believe that it could be quality over quantity as far as their title aspirations are concerned.
“Díaz was one of the best players for Liverpool last year, both in attack and defense, so I think it’s a great signing for Bayern,” stated ex-Southampton striker Gordon Watson to Get German Football News. “Bayern Munich getting rid of Sané doesn’t really matter because he only played once every four weeks if he could be bothered. Müller has been an unbelievable servant, but he was over the hill as well.”
Bayern are head and shoulders above everyone else. All of the other teams have been weakened: Leipzig are scared of their own shadows, Leverkusen have just lost their manager in Xabi Alonso and key individuals like Florian Wirtz and Granit Xhaka. Dortmund are almost like AC Milan, where they are more than a match for any team, at any league, at any stage, but they just don’t put 90 minutes together. I’m expecting them to come second and for Bayern to win the title by double digits.”
At 28 years of age, Luis Díaz already boasts two league titles in Colombia with Atlético Junior, two league titles in Portugal with Porto, and one league title in England with Liverpool, and all signs point to him adding to that tally this season with Bayern Munich, and potentially even a maiden Champions League title as well.
