Bayern Munich's 2013 FIFA Club World Cup winners: Where are they now?
A Bayern Munich team coached by Pep Guardiola and boasting the likes of Manuel Neuer, David Alaba and Toni Kroos completed an unprecedented quintuple with their 2013 FIFA Club World Cup triumph.
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Ahead of Bayern's tilt at the 2021 Club World Cup in Qatar, bundesliga.com finds out what the class of 2013 are doing with themselves eight years on…
Manuel Neuer (Goalkeeper)
The world's best goalkeeper then and the world's best goalkeeper now, Neuer is still doing Neuer things at 35. Bayern's captain fantastic played a decisive role throughout the 2019/20 campaign, most notably keeping Kylian Mbappe and Neymar at bay with some super-human interventions in the UEFA Champions League final win over Paris Saint-Germain. Victory at the 2021 Club World Cup would land the 2020 FIFA and five-time IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper his 24th major trophy as a Bayern player.
Watch: Manuel Neuer under the tactical microscope
Rafinha (Right-back)
Rafinha was a squad player for much of Bayern's 2013/13 treble-winning season, but was granted a new lease of life under Guardiola. He played every minute as Bayern dispatched Guangzhou Evergrande and Raja Casablanca en route to claiming their first Club World Cup, and remained at the club for another three years following Guardiola's departure. The effervescent full-back returned to his native Brazil with Flamengo in summer 2019, seven Bundesliga winner's medals the richer, before playing for Greece's Olympiakos.
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Jerome Boateng (centre-back)
Jerome Boateng is one of five surviving members of Bayern's 2013 Club World Cup-winning side. The German defender - a FIFA World Cup winner in 2014 - enjoyed something of a renaissance following the appointment of Hansi Flick last season, playing in 38 matches in all competitions. He celebrated his 300th Bundesliga appearance on Matchday 17 of the current campaign - 215 of which have come across 10 silverware-laden seasons with the record champions.
Dante (Centre-back)
Dante formed a formidable defensive partnership with Boateng as Bayern set new records for fewest goals conceded and most clean sheets in 2012/13. The Brazilian was an unused substitute against Guangzhou, but made a scoring return to the starting line-up in the final. His second season at Bayern also produced a Bundesliga-DFB Cup double. His third, in which Bayern defended their league crown, was his last. After one year at Wolfsburg, the former Brazil international of 202 Bundesliga appearances moved to France with Nice.
David Alaba (Left-back)
Alaba has been a staple at Bayern since 2011. The Austrian won his first treble as the club's irreplaceable left-back, but claimed his second as Boateng's left-hand man in the middle of the back four. The 28-year-old has played in over 400 competitive games for the club he joined as a 15-year-old. Only Thomas Müller has made more among currently active players - he's also the player Alaba shares the record with for most Bundesliga title wins (nine going on 10).
Philipp Lahm (Defensive midfielder)
Philipp Lahm was among the previous record holders with eight. The former Bayern skipper long held the distinction of being the world's best right-back, before Guardiola converted "the most intelligent player I've ever worked with" into a defensive midfielder. Lahm's halcyon days fell between 2013 and 2014 as he lifted a club quintuple and the World Cup with Germany. Since retiring at the age of 33 in May 2017, he's been inducted into the Bayern Hall of Fame, and was named honorary ambassador for Germany's bid to host UEFA Euro 2024.
Watch: Philipp Lahm's fond farewell
Xherdan Shaqiri (Right winger)
Unlike Lahm, Xherdan Shaqiri was always on the fringes for the duration of his two-and-a-half-season stint with Bayern. The mercurial winger made 81 appearances in that time, including a start against Guangzhou and late cameo in the ensuing final in Morocco. 'Shaq Attack' registered 17 goals and 18 assists in Bayern colours, before moving to Inter Milan and Stoke City. He's now approaching two years at Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool, where he's acquired a second Champions League medal and recently won the 2019/20 English Premier League.
Thiago Alcantara (Central midfielder)
Thiago became a Liverpool teammate of Shaqiri's in summer 2020. Guardiola's marquee Bayern signing won his first of seven Bundesliga titles under his former Barcelona mentor, and scored one of his 31 goals as a Bayern player in the Club World Cup final. The Spain international battled injury in the early part of his bountiful stay, but still featured in 235 competitive games. As well as Guardiola, he also played under Carlo Ancelotti, Niko Kovac and Flick - arguably saving his best for 2019/20's treble-winning campaign.
Toni Kroos (Attacking midfielder)
Thiago's debut season was Kroos' last as a Bayern player. The Germany international had joined the club at 16 and made his debut a year later, before becoming a first-team pillar in 2012/13. His elite-level soccer IQ and laser-guided passing range made him a perfect fit in Guardiola's team, while he produced four assists as Germany won their fourth World Cup. Real Madrid made their move soon after - Kroos has since gone on to win two La Ligas with Los Blancos, as well as three Champions Leagues and Club World Cups.
Watch: Toni Kroos - Made in the Bundesliga
Franck Ribery (Left winger)
Ribery remained at Bayern until summer 2019, signing off on 86 goals and 120 assists in 273 Bundesliga games spanning 12 seasons at the Allianz Arena. As well as being France's record appearance maker and goalscorer in the German top flight, he collected over 21 titles with Bayern. His trademark wizardry peaked in 2013 when he was named UEFA's Best Player, finished third in the Ballon d'Or and took the Golden Ball as the Club World Cup's top performer. At 37, he's still going strong at Serie A side Fiorentina.
Watch: Franck Ribery - 12 years at Bayern
Thomas Müller (Forward)
Müller warmed up for the 2021 Club World Cup by becoming the first Bundesliga player this season to reach double figures for goals and assists. With 10 of each and 14 rounds of league fixtures still to play, his 13th campaign in the red of Bayern is shaping up to be his best yet on a personal level. A 10th Bundesliga title awaits the 31-year-old, who recently usurped Bastian Schweinsteiger as the most decorated footballer in the history of the German game. A born winner and the very definition of a one-club man, it's hard to imagine a Bayern team without him.
Watch: Thomas Müller - the world's first and last Raumdeuter
Substitutes
Speaking of club servants, Bayern might not have made it to their maiden Club World Cup but for Javi Matinez. The midfield battering ram delivered a tour de force alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger in the 2012/13 Champions League, his displays over two legs in the 7-0 rout of Barcelona - namely shackling Lionel Messi - among his highlights. Injury lessened his role during Guardiola's reign, though he did score the winner from the bench in the UEFA Super Cup win over Chelsea. It was also on Pep's watch that he first showcased his abilities as a no-nonsense centre-half. Now in his ninth season at Bayern, the 32-year-old has racked up over 250 appearances for the Reds.
Mario Mandzukic
Along with Martinez and Dante, Mario Mandzukic was one of three new faces brought in as part of the healing process following runners-up finishes in the 2011/12 Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League. The Croatia international duly hit 48 goals in 88 competitive games across 2012/13 and 2013/14, but the arrival of Robert Lewandowski prompted a move elsewhere. Mandy spent a season with Atletico Madrid in Spain, before scoring 44 goals and lifting four Serie A titles with Juventus. Following a short stint at Al Duhali of the Qatar Stars League, the former Wolfsburg striker linked up with an AC Milan team with genuine designs on a first Scudetto for a decade.
Mario Götze's emergence in the false nine role may have hastened Mandzukic's departure. The ex-Borussia Dortmund prodigy ended his debut season at Bayern with four winner's medals - five including the World Cup that he sealed with a fabulous extra-time goal from the bench against Argentina. 'The German Messi' returned to Munich as a national hero, but left after three seasons in search of regular first-team football. Dortmund re-opened the door, only for various injury troubles and the rare metabolic illness, myopathy, to restrict the five-time Bundesliga winner to 65 top-flight appearances in his second spell back at his boyhood club. The 28-year-old left Germany for Dutch outfit PSV Eindhoven in summer 2020.
Head coach
If Götze's three-year stay with the record champions didn't quite live up to the lofty expectations he set as a youngster at Dortmund, Guardiola's surpassed them. The Catalan oversaw 161 matches in the Bayern dugout, collecting seven trophies and setting a glut of Bundesliga best-marks from most title wins by a foreign coach (three) to the quickest title wrap in history (27 match-days). Departing for Manchester City in summer 2016, he left a lasting legacy still felt to this day. "We have always been successful, but rarely been described as 'beautiful'," Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said of the two-time English Premier League-winning manager. "Under Pep, all of us suddenly raved. That's his legacy, I'd say."
Unused subs (position, current status)
Tom Starke (goalkeeper, retired)
Lukas Raeder (goalkeeper, VfB Lübeck)
Daniel van Buyten (centre-back, retired)
Jan Kirchhoff (centre-back, KFC Uerdingen)
Mitchell Weiser (full-back, Bayer Leverkusen)
Diego Contento (full-back, SV Sandhausen)
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (midfielder, Tottenham Hotspur)
Julian Green (midfielder, Greuther Fürth)
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