Did you know? Jean-Pierre Papin is the very first French player in the history of Bayern, playing in Munich from 1994 to 1996. This was followed by emblematic players of the club like Bixente Lizarazu (1997-2006), Willy Sagnol (2000-2009) and Franck Ribéry (2007-2019), as well as the 2018 world champions Corentin Tolisso (2017-2022), Benjamin Pavard (2019-2023) and Lucas Hernandez (2019-2023). Dayot Upamecano and Michael Olise are currently playing there.
“JPP” did not succeed at FCB. Superstar of French football, after having been the scorer for OM from 1986 to 1992, with the 1991 Ballon d’Or as his personal crowning achievement, the then 30-year-old striker arrived in Bavaria after two mixed seasons at AC Milan (all the same 31 goals in 63 matches). At Bayern, he only scored six goals in just 40 matches in all competitions, being away from the field for many periods due to two painful knees.
Proposed by Franz Beckenbauer to the management of Bayern, Jean-Pierre Papin reached an agreement with Giovanni Trapattoni, the team’s new Italian coach, and thus refused Real Madrid. “I would certainly have been happier in Spain, because the German mentality was not mine”he recently said in Colinterview. Presented as a star to supporters, the gunner was to benefit from the leadership of Oliver Kahn and Lothar Matthäus and the talent of Samuel Kuffour, Dietmar Hamann, Christian Ziege and Mehmet Scholl. Two first Bundesliga matches and his knee problems kept him away from the field.
Papin described as flop number 1 and sick imagine…
Daily life The World of October 27, 1994 then recounts:
“Disaster, today, everything is going wrong. JPP has become, in a few months of German football, a Turk’s head, which is not an enviable situation in this country. The weekly Bild
awarded him the title in all categories of ‘flop no. 1’
from Bayern. Before qualifying it, in French, as ‘imaginary sick person’. Why not the Fourberies of Papin, while they were at it! This shows the affront to our JPP, who is strangled by it and confided, on Tuesday, to The Team. Under the name ‘Football: big misfortune’the newspaper, which does not shy away from any temptation, confirms thathe’s drooling in Bavaria‘. »
The native of Boulogne-sur-Mer resumed in November, in a defeat against PSG at home (0-1, goal by George Weah) and for a double of goals and assists against Dynamo kyiv (1-4), also in C1. Before being unavailable for the rest of the season! The 1991 Ballon d’Or played a little more in 1995-1996, with a magnificent victory scored against KFC Uerdingen. He started in the first leg of the UEFA Cup final against the Girondins de Bordeaux (2-0, 1-3), before returning to France to join the Aquitaine club.
