Director shares the story of the birth and development of Bayern Munich’s Amazon Prime documentary

The documentary series Bayern Munich made in collaboration with Amazon Prime has been made available to watch for viewers in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria on Tuesday. The series titled “FC Bayern – Behind the Legend” is expected to make its worldwide release on December 8^th. In an extensive interview given to Sport1, the director of the series Simon Verhoeven has shared his experiences working with the club.

Verhoeven, an ardent fan of the sport and the club, talked about laying the foundation for the documentary almost half a decade ago and being held back due to the lack of interest from the management.

He commented, “The original idea came from my producer Quirin Berg, who approached me with it five years ago. At that time, he had already held talks with Amazon. I liked the idea, wrote a concept, but FC Bayern initially turned us down. In 2020 — in the course of Corona — that changed and suddenly we had an acceptance on the table.”

It took a lot of time to turn what was just a blueprint of a concept into what is now streaming on Prime. Verhoeven believes that the unprecedented arrival of the pandemic played a major role in getting the required thumbs up from the management. He said, “I think [the change of heart] was actually related to the pandemic. FC Bayern asked itself: How can we stay close to the fans in times of empty stadiums? The question then seemed to be answered by the documentary. But before the final decision was made, I had a meeting with Hasan Salihamidzic, Oliver Kahn, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and Jörg Wacker. They said: ‘A camera in the dressing room? We’ve never done anything like that before!’ Until Kahn interjected: ‘Exactly...and that’s exactly why it’s interesting.’ I think Kahn was one of the decisive factors in opening up. He sponsored us and the documentary.”

The series delivers exclusive footage of the events that went down behind the scenes at the club throughout the 2020/21 season. Unfortunately, you will have to wait a little more than a month if you are currently geo-blocked from accessing the content on Prime.