Fourth Decade
1993–2002: Bosman, FC Hollywood and Dortmund's CL triumph
He has missed the goal once again, but after being substituted, Jürgen Klinsmann is far more accurate. With momentum he kicks a hole into a man-sized advertising barrel of the Japanese battery manufacturer. FC Hollywood, as Bayern Munich has long been called by 1997, delivers yet more material for the gossip columns. Players are more powerful than ever since a certain Jean-Marc Bosman freed them from the chains of the old transfer system in December 1995.
The Bosman ruling transforms European football overnight. Foreign players flood the Bundesliga. The transfer market explodes. And Bayern Munich becomes the epicenter of drama — both on and off the pitch. Lothar Matthäus and his very public feuds, Oliver Kahn's intensity, the endless coaching carousel: Trapattoni, Hitzfeld, Ribbeck. The media dubs it "FC Hollywood."
But the decade's greatest moment belongs to Borussia Dortmund. Under Ottmar Hitzfeld, BVB wins the Champions League in 1997, defeating Juventus Turin 3-1 in the final. Karl-Heinz Riedle scores twice, Lars Ricken adds a legendary chip goal on his first touch. It remains the last Champions League triumph by a non-Bayern German club.
Kaiserslautern produces the ultimate fairytale in 1998 — promoted as champions of the second division, they go on to win the Bundesliga in their very first season back. No newly promoted team has managed this before or since.
The decade ends with heartbreak for Schalke 04. On May 19, 2001, Schalke celebrates being German champions for exactly four minutes and 38 seconds — until a last-gasp goal by Bayern's Patrik Andersson in Hamburg snatches the title away. It is the most dramatic moment in Bundesliga history.
