Gute Freunde - Der Aufstieg des FC Bayern
In the summer of 1965, FC Bayern Munich achieved promotion to the Bundesliga. Five up-and-coming footballers who are still inextricably linked to the club and German football today play a major role in this: Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer, Paul Breitner and Uli Hoeneß. In addition to the personal lives, the series tells about a team between 1965 and 1974 that came from nothing
Episodes
Müller is seventeen years old and a welder when his father dies far too early. From now on it is up to him to support the family. A big burden. But then an opportunity arises that opens up a new perspective for him: the highly talented amateur footballer gets an offer to play for the ambitious regional league team FC Bayern – and earn extra money there.
Maier's father works in psychiatry. Money is always too tight. But little Sepp has a great joy for life, coupled with a sense of humor that will make it easier for him to cope with many things in life than, for example, Müller. And he has a father who does everything for him; who even puts his own job at risk and ultimately loses in order to fulfill Sepp's wish. From then on, the family starved for four years.
Beckenbauer has no problems with fame. He seems - and his manager Schwan quickly recognizes this - to be the ideal figure; he has marketable star potential. You can finally earn big money with him. It is a business model. Because Beckenbauer has incomparable charisma. Nothing he does looks like work, everything is filled with a lightness and elegance. Franz can do it - always with his attractive and tabloid-compatible wife Brigitte at his side.
Breitner embodies the opposite of the elegant Beckenbauer. He is the only son of an administrator. From day one he wants to shake up the Beckenbauer monument; he becomes a challenger, a revolutionary. Breitner is used to challenges himself, and he accepts them no matter what. A fighter like the team has never had before. He grew up under a strict father, he has back problems and doesn't see well, but he doesn't care. Then he just has to train harder than the others.
Uli Hoeneß continues to shake up the original romantic idea of the eleven friends who stand up for each other and stick together through thick and thin. Hoeneß thinks big, even bigger than manager Schwan. The “fastest striker in Europe” senses that there is a business in football that is far from having exhausted its potential. As the son of a butcher, he learned early on what it means to generate an optimal profit margin. This know-how now benefits him as a professional footballer: he organizes autograph sessions, home stories and advertising contracts, not only for himself, but also for his teammates, especially Paul Breitner. This doesn't go down well with everyone, Franz Beckenbauer in particular is bothered by his teammate's entrepreneurial ambition.
Under the leadership of national coach Helmut Schön, the five Super Bayern teams are heading to the World Cup in their own country. Complemented by the top players Schwarzenbeck, Vogts, Netzer, Overath and many more. But the favorite for the tournament is not the Federal Republic of Germany, but the Netherlands with their “total football” and their superstar Johan Cruyff. In addition, the climate within the German team is anything but good: the Bavarians are no longer friendly with each other, and it has also been discovered that Italians and Dutch receive significantly higher bonuses than the DFB wants to pay.
