Guardian

IT was a night never to forget. On the night of May 25, 2013, they deserved their victory.

At the end of a grueling football match that provided the best advertisement for German football, Bayern Munich FC became the toast of football followers all over the world. But the night did not belong to them alone.  Borussia Dortmund FC also shared creditably in the global limelight.

In the course of the 90 minutes, many goal-scoring chances were created (and saved by excellent goalkeeping) that the pendulum of victory kept oscillating between the two teams in one of the best displays of attacking football seen during the entire 2013 championship.

The global audience of an estimated 170 million television viewers were not only thoroughly entertained but were perched on the edge of dramatic hysteria for the duration of the match.

Many were left wondering if the teams were actually German as little in the way both teams played reflected the long-established tradition of German football – mechanical, technical, efficient and boring!

Instead, Bayern Munich FC in particular looked, for most times in the match, like an improved and better version of FC Barcelona – Tiki Taka, physical strength, and a rock-solid, disciplined defense! I suspect that the world saw a preview of the football philosophy that will rule European football (and possibly world football) for some years to come requiring a level of physical fitness to cope with the speed of the game at the highest levels that will be mind-boggling.

One thing was very clear with the 1000-plus spectators at a public event in Lagos, Nigeria, where Jay Jay Okocha and I watched the match on giant television screens as special guests at a Mastercard show in front of a live audience.  If the audience’s reaction before and after the match is anything to go by, one can easily conclude that, whereas neither Bayern nor Dortmund had any local supporters in Nigeria before the match, the foundation was well laid, following a truly terrific performance, for a new battalion of fans.

The venue was devoid of the usual electricity of EPL and some La Liga matches. Nobody wore any replica shirts of the two teams at ‘war’. There was neither cheering nor baying!

All of that lasted only until the match started and the world was treated and enriched with vintage football of the highest order – a very open game characterised by moments of exceptional individual brilliance, endless running from end to end, non-stop unadulterated attacking football, excellent goalkeeping and dramatic goals to provide the icing on the cake. Everyone present was just happy to watch an exhilarating encounter without the ‘stress’ of fanatical support.

Since last weekend, the world has changed and the balance of football has shifted. If Germany needed one single event to announce the result of its return as a global football power, it found it.  What the world saw was neither an accident nor a fluke. It was the product of a well-designed, well-orchestrated and well-executed programme of a football development that started with the failure of the German national team at the 2006 World Cup.

Since then, the youth, academy and club football programmes introduced are running well. The clubs are attracting some of the world’s best players and coaches, and paying sensible wages. The clubs are run efficiently and profitably (unlike the free-fall of the EPL). The country is maintaining a sensible quota system that guarantees that German players get enough playing time and opportunity, and benefit maximally from the club structures and influx of foreign players. It is a complete package of a new way of running and developing football and its business.

I can testify that both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have attracted fans to themselves already within the Nigerian football planet since the final match.

Even at global level, I read that Bayern Munich have overtaken Manchester United, Arsenal and Barcelona as the world’s best financially-run and attractive football brand.  Can you believe it? In one week, the world of football has changed so dramatically!

As I join the rest of the world in celebrating the return of German football, I still find confounding a few things that run against the grain of common trends and sense.

I cannot pretend to understand the decision of Bayern Munich to let go their coach (Jupp Heynckes) that had just led them to win the most prestigious trophy in World Club football, and replace him with another (Pep Guardiola) that had not coached any team in the last one year! I cannot pretend to understand how a club (Borussia Dortmund FC) could agree to sell off its best player (Mario Goetz) to its fiercest rival (Bayern) on the eve of the most crucial match between them! I am dumbfounded.

Having said that, the most beautiful development for me is that the 2013 Champions league has added several names to our football lexicon, by throwing up truly new and authentic global football heroes that will illuminate our world for years to come - Manuel Neuter, Mario Goetz, David Alba, Dante, Schweinsteiger, Sven Bender, Mario Gomez, Matts Hummels, Robert Lewandowski, and so on.  Welcome to the new world.