A wrecked knee at 27 turned Uli Hoeneß into Bayern's business architect
When Uli Hoeneß took over Bayern Munich's commercial side in May 1979, the club had twelve employees, 12 million marks in revenue and 8 million marks of debt. He had been forced to quit playing at 27 because of a damaged knee. By late 2018 Bayern employed more than 1,000 people and earned over 657 million euros a year.
Before the boardroom, Hoeneß was a star forward. Udo Lattek brought him from amateur side TSG Ulm 1846 to Bayern in 1970, and over eight and a half years he won three league titles and three European Cups, scoring twice in the 4-0 replay win over Atlético Madrid in the 1974 final. For West Germany he won the 1972 European Championship and the 1974 World Cup, though his foul on Johan Cruyff in the final's opening minute gave the Dutch an early penalty. At Euro 1976 he sent the decisive shootout kick over the bar.
A knee injury suffered in the 1975 European Cup final never properly healed. A loan to Nürnberg in late 1978 failed to restore him, and he retired with 86 goals in 250 top-flight games. He moved straight into management and spent 30 years as general manager before becoming club president in 2009. He championed the Allianz Arena, built between 2002 and 2005 for 340 million euros, and bailed out struggling rivals including St. Pauli and Borussia Dortmund.
He had already cheated death once. In February 1982 he was the only survivor of a light aircraft crash that killed three others; asleep in the back, he escaped with minor injuries on his way to a national team friendly.
His fall came through a Swiss bank account. At his 2014 trial he admitted evading 28.5 million euros in taxes, was sentenced to three and a half years, resigned his Bayern posts the next day and declined to appeal. Released in 2016 after 18 months behind bars, he was re-elected president that November with more than 97 percent of the vote as the only candidate, finally stepping down in 2019 after 49 years at the club.
Source: Uli Hoeneß
