Muller_Era speaks about her beginnings — how she came into football and how she got into BFW.
As Bayern Munich wins the Bundesliga, I, Muller_Era aka Swaz, felt it to be the right time to dive into why and how I begun to support Bayern Munich. This is a long read, so beware.
Background
I only started following Bayern five years ago. I know, massive exposé.
As a girl growing up in South India, I had barely any exposure to football. Dad and Grandpa watched cricket, and since I grew up playing tennis, I watched tennis. Until 2018, I was otherwise disinterested in sports — mostly focused on my academics and my music.
Being familiar with the events of the 2014 World Cup, I was determined to follow in 2018 and sincerely watch the games. Hiding my phone under my desk during class hours and updating the boys around me about the score while mispronouncing every single player’s name became an everyday activity.
Perhaps, I picked the wrong time to watch Germany. A series of hapless performances led to their inevitable exit from the tournament. But Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller became familiar names — ones I would find again years later as I accidentally came into contact with Bayern in 2019/20.
My best friend was a Real Madrid fan who absolutely adored a Norwegian striker from Borussia Dortmund. To find out what the hype was about, I tuned into the Bundesliga stream. Of course, Erling Haaland and company didn’t impress me much. Immediately afterward, I happened to see a certain team in red with the players I was familiar with from die Mannschaft. Neuer and his superman-like saves were a treat to watch and I was mesmerised by Robert Lewandowski. But in the midst of everything, one man anchored the team and ran the ship — Thomas Müller. Dissatisfied with just 90 minutes, I went back again. And again. And again. And before I knew it, I was in love with Bayern Munich.
COVID-19 pandemic
Mere days after my 10th grade final exams finished, the pandemic began. Games came to a halt during my exams. I started 11th grade remotely in a new school. At this point, I felt I had very little to do, mostly because I was attending online school and also because post-10th grade, most Indian students feel the need to treat 11th grade like a honeymoon period.
Once the Bundesliga restarted in mid-May, Bayern became a full-time obsession. Following every game on my phone, while still being utterly clueless became a weekly activity. All I knew was there would be 11 men in red, and I’d cheer every time they got the ball.
My family was not aware of my relationship with football. What comes with being a teenager is the classic feelings of being misunderstood and repressed by one’s family. I was assured that my mother would be appalled by the all-nighters. However, even with the pandemic, everyone had their own things to do. My mother trusted me to take care of myself, though I did a less than ideal job at it. Poor woman.
Interestingly enough, the same family from whom I hid my football interests and writing from, are my biggest cheerleaders now. On matchdays, I casually go up to the living room — “Ma, tonight, Bayern game, read my article.”
Devotedly watching die Roten playing in empty stadiums and screaming as loud as Radio Müller from my room became my life. The team won the Bundesliga on 27 June, with an emphatic 4-0 win against VfL Wolfsburg and I was on cloud nine.
Then, the Champions League restarted, amplifying the Bavarian fanaticism by a million times. I impatiently waited for games to restart, after spending the entirety of July rewatching old games and learning as much about Bayern as I could. Bayern won the DFB-Pokal against Bayer Leverkusen but I only learnt of the Pokal’s existence after they had won it.
In August, the Bavarians returned to face Chelsea, whom they had earlier faced in the first leg back in February. Did I know anything about Chelsea? No. Did I absolutely despise them and wished for their utter destruction on pitch? 100%. Did Bayern do it? Yes, if 7-1 on aggregate were considered destruction.
The Indian Independence Day is celebrated on August 15th. Midnight of 14th, I grabbed a large bag of Lays, begged my brother to watch Bayern with me and sat with his laptop for what I now know as an unforgettable night. Bayern faced FC Barcelona in Lisbon for the famous 8-2 victory.
The happiest person that week was a 15-year-old Bayern fanatic who had never seen anything like it before. The Bavarians continued with a 3-0 win against Lyon on August 19 and the Champions League victory on August 23 against Paris Saint Germain, making me the biggest Thomas Müller fanatic in the south of India.
Hansi Flick’s sextuple was perhaps the best time I could have become a Bayern fan. And I became ready to fight the glory hunter accusations.
Navigating anger, tears and frustration for the first time
2020/21 was a difficult season. Bayern won the league but were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal. By this point, my family had learnt that I watched football. I got my first ever football and Bayern jersey for my birthday, the same day Bayern defeated FC Duren 3-0.
Then we faced Holstein Kiel in January. I still vividly remember that night. Tears streaming down my face, the absolute burning hatred I felt for Kiel and a mix of emotions I simply did not know how to process.
But I was quickly pacified — Bayern won emphatically against Lazio and did mostly well in the Bundesliga. In April again, I was disappointed — a half-absent Bayern squad went up against PSG and lost. By this point, I had begun to understand that following a team meant handling the best and worse with grace. I had become active on Twitter, arguing about the sport and learning about the history of the sport.
You must understand, I had simultaneously been watching a certain Black and Blue Italian team. I often get much hate for following Inter Milan but this team too had shaped my life.
Bayern Munich and my mental health
By now, I started the 12th grade. Something I often tend to not talk about is how difficult this year was personally. I was preparing for the medical school entrance exam that I would take in 2022. My mental health reached the worst possible state. Yet, it was the anticipation of watching Bayern, Inter, Union Berlin, West Ham United, Atlanta United, and several other teams I had begun to follow that kept me together. It kept me barely alive, which by itself was an achievement. I am forever grateful to the sport and Thomas Müller for somehow instilling the hope that everything would be alright.
On Twitter, I posted threads about Bayern and made wallpaper edits, one of which was liked by Jamal Musiala himself! After quitting Twitter in July 2021 for myriad reasons, I became an active member at BFW. I read posts religiously, and later started contributing in the fan posts section. My first ever fanpost about the Müller Mafia which I had entirely typed on my phone received a rare level of engagement in the fanposts section.
This was mere days after my 17th birthday. After a few fanposts, I was encouraged by Ineednoname (INNN) to apply. The application required two pieces but I sent three just to prove myself. After all, I had constantly been dismissed from fellow football fans for the following reasons:
- Following Bayern Munich (I was a glory hunter and I chose to follow a seemingly irrelevant team from a Farmers’ league)
- Being a girl — “You’re a girl? Explain the offside rule”, “Do you even know how the sport works?”, “What, you follow the sport because you find Lewandowski hot, right?”
I have always felt the need to prove myself, and in football, it was amplified by a billion times. I took to writing not because I thought myself to be a phenomenal writer or extremely knowledgeable in football, but because it felt like the best outlet for my thoughts and feelings. Whatever I felt, paper was willing to take without judgements. I often joke about my poor vocabulary despite being a writer, but writing was never about the language. It was about the club I had fallen in love with in mere days. At every juncture, Bayern stayed a set constant in my life.
To date, I am grateful for the acceptance into BFW. I cannot thank my bosses and colleagues enough. But you, my dear reader, are the real hero. Thank you for listening to my clueless rants and making me, a novice, feel heard.
The story doesn’t end here. Stay tuned for Part 2.
