For the casual football fan, to learn that Germany has had more Women’s Champions League winners than any other country, but that Bayern Munich are not among them, may be a surprise.
Bayern are the most successful club in the country on the men's side by a huge margin - winning 80 major honours, with Borussia Dortmund in second place with 22 trophies.
On the women’s side, though, Frankfurt, Duisburg, Turbine Potsdam and Wolfsburg have all been champions of Europe - three of them before Bayern’s Champions League debut in 2009.
Fast forward 12 years, though, and the club has come a long way.
On Wednesday, they face seven-time European champions Lyon in a Champions League clash for which it is difficult to predict a winner.
That progress has not come overnight, nor is it a project nearing completion.
Getty“When you see what has happened in these past 10 years, I think it’s unbelievable," sporting director Bianca Rech tells GOAL, reflecting on how much things have changed since she left Bayern as a player in 2010.
It was in 2016 when Rech returned, initially in a team management role. Bayern had just won back-to-back league titles, ousting two-time European champions Wolfsburg from their position at the top. But she "felt something was missing".
“I didn't really see a future plan. This is why I sat down with the head of women's football and said: 'If we want to win something in the future and have a vision, we need to write something down'. That's why I wrote the strategy [of] where we want to go as FC Bayern.
"Our vision was to become the number one in Germany - and not just for one year. Wolfsburg were the German champion four times in a row and we want to take over the role as the leading champion in Germany."
Lots of things have developed to put Bayern in a position where they were able to reclaim that title, for example: excellent facilities, growth of the youth teams and professionalisation.
Head coach Jens Scheuer has proven himself tactically brilliant, too, and the club’s improvements mean he has a good squad to work with.
Getty/Goal“Last year, it was a huge step for us when we signed players like Hanna Glas [from Paris Saint-Germain] and Viviane Asseyi [from Bordeaux], bringing in players from outside, from big foreign clubs and football countries," Rech explains. "Normally, it was the other way around. For example: Melanie Leupolz or Vivianne Miedema leaving the club to England.
"We said: ‘Okay, to make the next step, we have to, first of all, bring in players from outside, and second continue bringing in top German players'. It was important to bring in an experienced international player who is deciding to come to Germany, instead of going to Spain or England. We continued this path this summer - for example with Saki Kumagai [from Lyon].
"The most important thing was, and still is, to bring continuity in our team and try to avoid having too many transfers and player changes after each season.
“There are a lot of top clubs right now with an ambition to win the Champions League and being able to invest a lot of money. But there is a problem: the quantity of top players is not there yet.
"If you look for one position, you don't have - compared to the men's game - maybe five or 10 players. It's around one to three, maximum. There are around five top clubs who want the same player. Then you can imagine how the market works – player are getting really expensive.
"Our position is for sure not the easiest. The brand FC Bayern Munich isn't enough. Our league in terms of visibility struggles compare to the English league. The income from TV rights is much higher and therefore much more money available.
"We have to take other routes and sometimes we convince the player, because the really believe in our project. For example, Saki Kumagai, she's an amazing player. If she would have gone for the money, she would have chosen another club, right? But she decided last summer to come to us because of the project and the concept we have.”
Getty/GoalIt is also about signing players who fit into the environment.
“There's one big statement and this is something powerful. If you would ask players on the men's team, they would probably say the same thing: Even though we are such a huge club, we're still a small family," Rech adds.
"It's the players, it's the people that work here. They make you feel welcome every day. Players from abroad tell me often: 'This feels like a second family'.“
That togetherness was huge last season for Bayern’s league title triumph, but it is not just domestically that these factors are having an impact.
Bayern were 90 minutes away from the Champions League final last season, until Chelsea made an historic semi-final comeback.
Making that next step in Europe, and eventually becoming champions, is another part of Bayern's vision - which Rech admits they are already working “ahead” of.
Getty“The main focus is to win the league and we want to win the German cup," she says of this year. "The Champions League, with the new [group stage] format, is a challenge, but our first goal is to reach the quarter-finals."
For a club like Bayern, the culture is winning, so it is no surprise that there is more desire than ever from the board to bring success to the women’s team.
"I think with the progress and development in the last two years, they recoginse the development and the hard work as a department. This is something which they're very proud of," Rech says.
As for a timeframe on European success? There is no pressure, but it is certainly on the mind.
“At the time we wrote the strategy, our vision was to win the Champions League. We started our process in 2019-20 and to win the Champions League was, and is, a mid-term goal.
"We need to do the right steps to reach this goal."