"You can't imagine it from the outside!" Leon Goretzka underlines a special quality at FC Bayern

"I'm eager to repeat 2020, but this time with our fans. That would be a whole different ball game," Goretzka told the club magazine 51. The midfielder will depart Bayern in the summer after eight years. Six years ago, when he won his first treble during the pandemic, the Champions League final victory over Paris Saint-Germain (1–0) in Lisbon unfolded behind closed doors.

Sporting-wise, though, the parallels hold: the "sense of self" from six years ago has "returned in recent weeks," he noted. That is no guarantee of success in Europe's premier competition, "but there is that special feeling that, with a bit of luck, you might have once or twice in your career. We have a team where every cog meshes with the next. We have individual quality, and alongside that, we have this hunger, this willingness to run."

Looking back, he feels "gratitude" for "a wonderful, intense, special time that I'm sure I'll miss". So what makes Bayern so unique? "From the outside, you can't imagine how warm the dressing room is," Goretzka explains.

"It's fiercely competitive and the demands are huge, yet I felt at home from day one," he added. "Competing for the biggest prizes in football within such a close-knit setup is rare."

The 31-year-old, reportedly close to signing for AC Milan, sincerely hopes that remains the case. "We must protect the 'Mia san mia' spirit; the torch must always be passed on."

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