Six decades of the Bundesliga
Every spin in 34-0-0 lands on a real club in a real decade. Some of those squads are treasure. Some are a graveyard. Here is what you are actually being handed when the reel stops — and which eras are worth praying for.
The 1970s — the duel that made the league
If the reel gives you a 1970s squad, sit up. This is the richest decade in the game, because two of the greatest sides in European history were slugging it out at the same time.
Bayern München won three consecutive European Cups from 1974 to 1976 with a spine that is almost unfair: Sepp Maier in goal, Franz Beckenbauer sweeping, Paul Breitner at left-back, Uli Hoeneß and Gerd Müller ahead of them. Landing this squad is close to a cheat code — there is a legend at nearly every position.
Borussia Mönchengladbach were their opposite number and, for a while, their equal. Günter Netzer conducting from midfield, Berti Vogts snapping at ankles behind him, Jupp Heynckes scoring and the Danish Ballon d'Or winner Allan Simonsen on the wing. The Foals won five titles in the decade and are the most romantic draw in the game.
1. FC Köln round the decade out, with Wolfgang Overath's left foot in midfield and, later, Toni Schumacher in goal.
The 1980s — Bayern, and Hamburg's moment
The great seventies sides broke up and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge carried Bayern almost single-handedly, winning back-to-back Ballons d'Or in 1980 and 1981. Bayern squads from this decade are strong but top-heavy: brilliant at the sharp end, thinner behind.
The decade's best story belongs elsewhere. Hamburger SV won the European Cup in 1983 — a reminder that the Bundesliga was not always a one-club league — and 1980s Hamburg is one of the more satisfying draws available. 1. FC Köln in the 1980s is another good one: Schumacher in goal, Pierre Littbarski running at people, the Allofs brothers scoring.
The 1990s — Dortmund's decade, and the strangest title ever won
The 1990s belong to Borussia Dortmund, who won back-to-back titles in 1995 and 1996 and then the Champions League in 1997, beating Juventus in the final. Matthias Sammer was the Ballon d'Or winner at the heart of it. Dortmund squads from this era are the best-balanced non-Bayern draw in the game.
The decade also produced the single most improbable thing in Bundesliga history: in 1998, 1. FC Kaiserslautern won the title having just been promoted the season before. Newly promoted clubs are supposed to fight relegation. Kaiserslautern won the whole thing, and nobody has done it since.
Meanwhile Lothar Matthäus had returned to Bayern from Inter and was busy reinventing himself as a libero in his thirties, because of course he was.
The 2000s — Bayern's machine, and the challengers who broke through
This is the decade of Oliver Kahn at his most immovable, of Michael Ballack arriving from Leverkusen, and of a young Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger coming through. Bayern squads from the 2000s are deep and reliable — not as spectacular as the 1970s, but there are no holes.
Two clubs punched through. Werder Bremen won the double in 2004 with a gloriously watchable side built around Johan Micoud, Miroslav Klose and, soon after, Diego. VfB Stuttgart won the title in 2007 with a very young squad, and VfL Wolfsburg did it in 2009 with Edin Džeko and Grafite scoring an absurd number of goals between them. All three are excellent, slightly unexpected draws.
The 2010s — the era of total dominance
Bayern won eleven consecutive Bundesliga titles from 2013 to 2023 — a streak with no real parallel in a major European league. The 2010s squads are the strongest modern draw in the game by a distance: Neuer in goal, Lahm and Boateng behind, Schweinsteiger in midfield, Ribéry and Robben on the wings, Lewandowski up front. The 2013 side won the treble under Jupp Heynckes, who had been Gladbach's striker forty years earlier.
The counterweight was Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund, who won titles in 2011 and 2012 with a young, ferocious pressing side and reached the 2013 Champions League final — an all-German affair that Bayern won at Wembley. Klopp-era Dortmund squads are one of the most enjoyable draws available.
The 2020s — Leverkusen finally do it
Lewandowski broke Gerd Müller's forty-nine-year-old record with 41 league goals in 2020-21. Then, in 2024, the decade produced its defining moment — and it was not Bayern.
Bayer Leverkusen, a club so associated with second place that Germany had coined the nickname "Neverkusen", went the entire 2023-24 Bundesliga season unbeaten: 28 wins, 6 draws, no defeats, 90 points, and the first title in their history. It was the first unbeaten league season in Bundesliga history, and it ended Bayern's eleven-year grip in the most emphatic way imaginable.
Modern squads across the league are the deepest they have ever been — which in 34-0-0 means the 2020s rarely give you a bad pick, even if the ceiling is lower than a 1970s Bayern draw.
Which eras should you spin for?
If you want a perfect season, you want 1970s Bayern or 1970s Gladbach, and you want them early, while you still have slots open everywhere. If you want reliability, the 2010s Bayern and Klopp-era Dortmund squads will fill almost any position with something in the mid-to-high 80s. And if the reel hands you a mid-table side from a lean decade with only your striker slot left — well, that is the game. Adversity is the point.