As Germany’s top-flight football league Bundesliga kicks off its new campaign this Friday, defending double champions Bayern Munich have entered the season with high ambitions of claiming an unprecedented treble, while their closest competitors have executed major offseason overhauls in a bid to close the growing gap on the Bavarian giants.
Bayern Munich will kick off their title defense at home against Stuttgart, the 2025-26 German Cup runners-up, fresh off a historic domestic campaign that saw the club claim both the Bundesliga and German Cup titles, secure the fourth-highest points total in league history, and set a new goal-scoring record of 122 goals across 34 regular-season matches. Led by star striker Harry Kane, who lined up alongside lethal wingers Michael Olise and Luis Diaz, Bayern dropped just one domestic fixture all last season, with Kane netting a hat-trick to seal the Cup final win over Friday’s opening opponent. The only significant setback of Bayern’s 2025-26 campaign came in European competition, where they bowed out of the Champions League semi-finals in a tight 6-5 aggregate defeat to eventual tournament winners Paris Saint-Germain.
This offseason, Bayern has reinforced its title-chasing squad by adding Moroccan World Cup standout Ismael Saibari and young German defender Nathaniel Brown, building on a already dominant core. The club’s hunger for silverware remains unquenched, as demonstrated by their recent 2-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup. Speaking to reporters after the Super Cup win, Kane made clear the team’s intentions for the new season, framing the early win as a warning to the rest of the league. “We fell just short in the Champions League, but our momentum is to keep pushing, pushing each other, pushing this team to see how far we can go,” the England captain said. “Our aim is to continue to dominate in Germany, and I think winning here is a great statement.”
Kane, who joined Bayern from Tottenham Hotspur in 2023 after years without major silverware in England, has already claimed three domestic trophies and two Super Cup titles with the Bavarian side, following a 61-goal haul across all competitions last season. The 33-year-old also has extra motivation for a strong start to the new campaign: the Ballon d’Or award will be presented in October in his home city of London, and Bayern’s leadership has publicly thrown their full weight behind Kane’s candidacy. “It can only be Harry Kane. We can just give it to Harry already,” Bayern board member Rouven Kasper told AFP. Sporting director Christoph Freund echoed that sentiment, noting “[Kane] deserves to win the Ballon d’Or — he had an outstanding season.”
Off the pitch, Bayern has also been navigating a health concern for star playmaker Jamal Musiala. The 23-year-old German international, who revealed this summer he is living with a neurological disorder that caused two on-pitch collapses during pre-season, is expected to be gradually eased back into the starting lineup, with Saibari’s arrival providing the squad with enough depth to cover for his slow return. Bayern’s technical staff has expressed confidence that Musiala will return to his best form in due time.
While Bayern enters the season as the overwhelming favorite, their Bundesliga rivals have all undergone major changes in the offseason in an attempt to mount a credible title challenge. Longtime Bayern challenger Borussia Dortmund, after years of prioritizing established senior players, have returned to their historic model of investing in high-potential young talent, sinking a reported 110 million euros into new signings this summer. That total matches Bayern’s own offseason spending on Saibari and Brown, with Dortmund adding 19-year-old winger Konstantinos Karetsas, teenager defender Joane Gadou, 23-year-old midfielder Giannis Konstantelias, and experienced midfielder Joey Veerman to their ranks.
For Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac, who won the Bundesliga title with Bayern in 2018-19, the gap between his current side and the defending champions remains sizable, even after the summer investment. “A lot must happen to close the gap,” Kovac told AFP. “We must play over our capacities, I would say. And then Bayern Munich play under their capacity. But you can be sure we will try everything.”
Elsewhere across the league, Stuttgart, who have qualified for the Champions League in two of the three full seasons under manager Sebastian Hoeness, has achieved a rare offseason stability: for the first time since Hoeness took charge in 2023, the club has managed to retain all its top talents despite interest from bigger European clubs, rather than selling key stars. 2023-24 Bundesliga winners Bayer Leverkusen have turned to Spanish manager Carles Martinez Novell to continue the club’s rebuild that began when former coach Xabi Alonso departed in 2025. RB Leipzig, who finished third last season to qualify for the Champions League, has appointed Argentine manager Martin Demichelis to replace outgoing coach Ole Werner, and has seen major squad turnover after selling star midfielder Yan Diomande to Real Madrid for 120 million euros. Despite bringing back fan favorite Christopher Nkunku on a season-long loan from AC Milan, the squad still lacks top-level experience in key positions heading into the opener.
As the first kickoff of the new Bundesliga season approaches, all eyes will be on whether Bayern can turn their domestic dominance into a historic treble, or if the league’s revamped challengers can finally dethrone the Bavarian giants.