The Bundesliga’s winter break ends this Friday (January 9th) after less than three weeks. The reason is the World Cup coming up in the summer (June 11th to July 19th) in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The seasons of the national leagues and international competitions must therefore end in good time so that the national teams can prepare for the World Cup finals in peace.
Because of the comparatively short break in the season, this time only six of the 18 Bundesliga teams traveled to a winter training camp abroad at the turn of the year. The others, including the German record champions and defending champions FC Bayern Munich, stayed in Germany.
Can Bayern still gamble away the 35th championship title in their club history?
Theoretically it is of course possible, but realistically it is more than unlikely. After 15 games – two match days before the end of the preliminary round – Bayern are still unbeaten and comfortably lead the table with a nine point lead over Borussia Dortmund.
This means that the so-called “autumn championship” can no longer be taken away from them. And Munich’s goal difference is a whopping 30 goals better than BVB’s.
Only once since there were three points for a win in the Bundesliga (1995) has a front-runner squandered a nine-point lead after matchday 15: Borussia Dortmund achieved this “feat” in the 2018/19 season and left the title behind.
In the end, FC Bayern triumphed with a two-point lead. Almost no one believes that the same thing will happen to Munich this season as it did to BVB.
The teams in third and fourth place in the table, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and RB Leipzig, are already twelve points behind the defending champions. The “Bayern chasers”, who are not actually chasing them, will primarily try to finish at least fourth in order to secure participation in the Champions League for the coming season.
How can the people of Munich keep their motivation high?
The prospect of more than just another championship title should help. If coach Vincent Kompany’s team maintains the level of performance, the “triple” will be possible for the third time after 2013 and 2020. Bayern are also doing well in the Champions League and have reached the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup, where they will face Leipzig at the beginning of February.
They can also draw motivation from possible new Bundesliga records. After 41 points from 15 games, their own points record from the 2012/2013 season is shaking, when the Munich team ended up with 91 out of 102 possible points.
A new goal record is also possible. The record, also held by Bayern, is 101 goals (1971/72). They have already scored 55 times this season.
If Bayern striker Harry Kane remains as accurate as he has been (19 goals), he will be chasing the title of the best Bundesliga top scorer of all time. Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds this with 41 goals. In 2021, the Pole broke the legendary Gerd Müller’s “record of the century” (40 goals in the 1971/72 season).
Who is at risk of relegation?
With only eight points to their name, bottom club FSV Mainz 05 already appears slightly behind in the fight to stay in the league. But since the Swiss Urs Fischer has been coaching Mainz, the team has remained unbeaten in four competitive games. Only three points are missing from currently penultimate 1. FC Heidenheim (11 points) and 16th in the table. FC St. Pauli (12) four points.
The teams from tenth to 15th place can also get into the relegation vortex: Werder Bremen (17), 1. FC Köln (16), Borussia Mönchengladbach (16), Hamburger SV (15), VfL Wolfsburg (15) and FC Augsburg (14).
What happened in the winter transfer window?
Little so far. However, the window is still open for almost four weeks: until February 2nd at 8 p.m. CET. After a year and a half at Borussia Dortmund, national player Pascal Groß is moving back to the English Premier League to his old employer Brighton & Hove Albion for an estimated transfer fee of around three million euros.
Eintracht Frankfurt, currently seventh in the table, bought Younes Ebnoutalib from second division club SV Elversberg for around eight million euros. The 22-year-old led the top scorers list in the second division with twelve goals in 17 games.
Otherwise, there have been mainly rental transactions so far. The 18-year-old talented striker Bara Sapoko Ndiaye from Gambia will be part of the FC Bayern squad until the end of the season.
And what else should you pay attention to after the winter break?
Especially on the form of the German national players. You have to recommend yourself to national coach Julian Nagelsmann with good performances for the World Cup.
For young star Jamal Musiala, who is about to make his comeback in the summer of 2025 after his serious injury at the Club World Cup, it will be about getting as much match practice as possible with Bayern and getting back into shape quickly. The same applies to Niclas Füllkrug at his new club AC Milan.
The DFB team has four test games on the program before its opening World Cup game against Curacao on June 14th: in Switzerland (March 27th), against Ghana (March 30th), Finland (May 31st) and shortly before the World Cup against hosts USA (June 6th).
