Leon Goretzka's Bayern Farewell: Aiming for 2020 Glory with Fans
Leon Goretzka knows exactly what he wants from his Bayern farewell: one more shot at 2020 – only this time with a full house roaring behind him.
"I'm eager to repeat 2020, but this time with our fans. That would be a whole different ball game," he told club magazine 51. The line lands with extra weight because everyone now knows how his story in Munich ends. After eight years, the midfielder will leave Bayern in the summer, closing a chapter that has carried him from promising signing to serial winner and dressing-room pillar.
Back in 2020, his first treble came in eerie silence. The Champions League final win over Paris Saint-Germain in Lisbon, a 1–0 triumph etched into club history, played out in an empty stadium at the height of the pandemic. No travelling Bayern supporters, no sea of red, no cathartic release in front of their own people. Just cold, clinical dominance behind closed doors.
This season, though, Goretzka feels a familiar current running through the team.
Sporting-wise, he sees clear echoes of that treble year. The "sense of self" from six years ago, as he put it, has "returned in recent weeks". He knows that doesn’t hand Bayern the trophy. The Champions League never works like that. But he recognises that rare inner certainty top players talk about only a few times in their careers.
"There is that special feeling that, with a bit of luck, you might have once or twice in your career," he said. A team where "every cog meshes with the next". Individual brilliance, yes, but fused with "hunger" and "willingness to run". The kind of blend that carried Bayern through Lisbon and that now, once again, gives them the look of a side no one wants to draw.
As he looks back, the competitive edge gives way to something softer. Goretzka speaks of "gratitude" for "a wonderful, intense, special time that I'm sure I'll miss". Eight years at Bayern is not just a career stop; it becomes a life lived at the highest pressure point in German football.
So what, in his eyes, makes Bayern different from the outside image of a ruthless winning machine?
"From the outside, you can't imagine how warm the dressing room is," he explains. It sounds almost contradictory when you consider the club’s relentless standards. Yet that tension – between a "fiercely competitive" environment and a place where he "felt at home from day one" – is exactly what he believes sets Bayern apart.
"Competing for the biggest prizes in football within such a close-knit setup is rare," he added. It is the sort of sentence that hints at why so many players struggle to leave, and why those who do often talk about Bayern in almost family terms.
At 31, Goretzka is reportedly close to signing for AC Milan. A new league, a new language, a new San Siro stage. But as he prepares to swap Munich for Milan, he sounds less like a man escaping and more like a guardian worried about what he leaves behind.
"We must protect the 'Mia san mia' spirit; the torch must always be passed on," he said.
For Goretzka, that motto is not a marketing slogan. It is the code that turned a dressing room of stars into a place that felt like home, and a club of huge expectations into a team that, in his words, runs and suffers together. The medals will go with him. The question now is whether that torch burns just as brightly once he’s gone.
