MUNICH (AP) — Bayern Munich’s players lined up with the image of a white cockatoo statue on their T-shirts as they celebrated winning another Bundesliga title on Sunday.
Bayern’s 4-2 win over Stuttgart clinched the title with four rounds to go after opening an unassailable 15-point lead over second-placed Borussia Dortmund.
But few were expecting to see the cockatoo again after it played a central role in the celebrations when Bayern also won the Bundesliga title last season.
“He had to wait a long time before we could let him out of his cage again,” Bayern midfielder Leon Goretzka joked after celebrating with the cockatoo statue that made its first appearance last season.
Last year’s title was won when Bayern wasn’t playing — Freiburg’s draw with second-placed Bayer Leverkusen left Bayern an unassailable eight points clear with two rounds remaining.
Bayern’s players had been following the Freiburg-Leverkusen match on TV in a Munich restaurant and they took a shine to a statue of a cockatoo there. They unofficially adopted it as their new team mascot. One of the players – it’s not clear who – took the cockatoo statue from the restaurant and it subsequently claimed a prominent position on the stage a week later when the team was presented with the Bundesliga trophy.
“I’m not saying who it was,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said at the time. “The story will come out some time.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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