Memories of a time that now seems like the Stone Age were awakened. In the spring of 2011 the… FC Bayern He agreed in the summer to part ways with his very stubborn and very, very confident coach Louis van Gaal, but suddenly summer came in April and van Gaal was no longer a senior Bayern employee.

We will never know what would have happened 13 years later if FC Bayern had more or less torpedoed their season in the round of 16 of the Champions League. More than less. Would it have been summer for Thomas Tuchel, the coach on duty, even in March? If necessary, Van Gaal, who of course has eternal confidence in himself, could have been the executor of the estate until the real summer.

With the confident 3-0 victory in the second leg of the round of 16 against Lazio Roma But the Munich team not only recovered from 0-1 in the first leg. They also, first of all, extended Tuchel's residence permit. And, secondly, the expiration date of a team that everyone claims has reached the end of the era that began with Van Gaal. That was in 2009. In the stone age.

Tuchel also leaves a legacy to FC Bayern

How appropriate that the over 30s Harry Kane (minute 39/66) and Thomas Müller (45+2) scored against Lazio, in Bayern's best game of this year 2024, relatively young but already somewhat turbulent. The lively Munich team hardly demanded that completely different calibers await them in the quarterfinals, it doesn't matter for now.

The elders gathered themselves again and the objective of the game was for the young people to help them. Which in turn portrayed very well the tension of this afternoon under the drizzle.

Bayern's split from Tuchel may be inevitable, this working relationship was simply an alliance of convenience, at least not a match, as that would be called in modern German. At the same time, however, Tuchel is preparing a kind of legacy for the Munich team: partly forced, partly intentional, he initiated the expected change and enriched the Bayern squad with a Bayern player. Literally.

Pavlovic impressed again at Bayern: “A great player”

Müller, the most Bavarian of all Bavarians, scored his 238th goal in his 696th game on Tuesday, which was surprising. Meanwhile, Aleksandar Pavlovic played his fourteenth official match with the professionals, his second in the Champions League. With Tuchel's support, he was the first youth player on campus, inaugurated in 2017, who made a lasting leap and is now performing impressively under the pressure of the spotlight. He actually he should say: again awesome.

Pavlovic is 19 years old, he is a teenager, but he moves on the soccer field with the calmness of an experienced player. Together with Leon Goretzka, he orchestrated the match against Lazio and, to be honest, no one was very surprised that (former) leader Joshua Kimmich played in the right-back position and Pavlovic occupied Kimmich's natural right to govern: in the engine. midfield space. “He was very, very good, strong in duels, poisonous,” praised former Bayern boss Matthias Sammer on Amazon Prime.

Pavlovic, the son of Serbian parents, is a true Munich native, born in the state capital and a son of the club. “FC Bayern is everything to me,” he said recently. This caresses the soul of the club. “Our fans dream of these stories coming true and we feel the same,” emphasized CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen. Bayern legend Lothar Matthäus called Pavlovic a “giant player”, and Tuchel called him “an excellent footballer and an excellent guy”. .” That is to say, a guy who is his way of playing: calm, scammed, mature.

Pavlovic, Musiala, Tel, the future of Bavaria

Certainly, in the 3-0 defeat at Leverkusen a few weeks ago, Pavlovic was part of the team that lost resoundingly. The suffering of young P., a painfully normal step of development. Especially since the prospects are magnificent and Matthäus bravely chose the largest scale: this Pavlovic, he announced via Sky, could “become someone like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm or Thomas Müller” in Munich.

When the new team is built, Tuchel will no longer be Bayern's coach, that's for sure. But it helped shape and accelerate the implementation of it. This new team, which will be created around Pavlovic, Jamal Musiala (21) and Mathys Tel (18), possibly with Frans Krätzig (21, currently on loan in Vienna, born in Nuremberg, if that counts) and Josip Stanisic (23, currently awarded to Leverkusen, like Pavlovic, originally from Munich).

Oh yes, and with Müllerthomas, who will surely sign a new one-year contract in 2029.