Bayern Munich’s win against Cologne on Wednesday meant the Bavarian giants equalled the record points tally at the halfway stage of a Bundesliga season – while scoring far more goals than any German top-flight side has ever managed after 17 matches.
BBC Sport takes a closer look at some of the stunning numbers behind Bayern’s barnstorming start to the season.
It is not unusual for Bayern Munich to top the Bundesliga table at the halfway stage of the season but things are a little different after 17 matches in 2025-26.
The 3-1 victory against Cologne at the RheineEnergieStadion extended their unbeaten league start to 15 wins and two draws from 17 matches – tying the Bundesliga points record of 47 at this stage, set by Pep Guardiola in his first season with Bayern in 2013-14.
However, Vincent Kompany’s team have achieved the feat in finer style, scoring a record 66 goals at the halfway stage – 22 more than Guardiola’s team managed 12 years ago.
In 2013-14, Guardiola’s Bayern went on to win the Bundesliga title with 90 points, 19 points ahead of Borussia Dortmund in second. The title that year was settled with seven games still remaining.
Kompany’s Bayern are already 11 points ahead of second-placed Dortmund this season and may well be targeting the Bundesliga record tally of 91 points.
It was set by Bayern’s Treble-winning side in 2012-13 – and Jupp Heynckes’ team had five points fewer than Kompany’s at this stage.
The sheer scale of Bayern’s scoring has not been seen at this stage of any leading European league since the 1930s.
Athletic Bilbao were the last club to have scored more than Bayern’s 66 goals after 17 fixtures, netting 72 in 1930-31 – and they proved crucial as the Basque club went on to secure the La Liga title on goal difference after three teams finished level in an 18-game season.
Bilbao’s goal difference was 28 better than Racing Santander in second.
However, it is an industrial town in Lancashire, rather than a sun-kissed port of northern Spain, that boasts the all-time goals record after 17 matches.
Blackburn Rovers scored 73 goals as they finished third in Division One in 1889-90 – a total unsurpassed in any major top flight.
More recently, Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City set the Premier League’s existing record after 17 games, scoring 53 goals in 2011-12 as they ended a 44-year wait for the title – a team captained by Kompany.
The star of Bayern’s goal-happy show has undoubtedly been striker Harry Kane, whose prolific form since swapping north London for Germany has reached new levels this season.
The England captain has already scored 31 goals in just 27 games, including 20 in 17 league appearances – and only failed to find the net in eight.
In Kane’s first campaign with Bayern in 2023-24, he averaged a goal every 79 minutes. In his second it was every 92 minutes.
Before Wednesday’s match, the 32-year-old was scoring a goal every hour he is on the pitch.
And Kane’s goals come in flurries – his hat-trick in the 5-0 win at Stuttgart on 6 December was his third of the season and a remarkable 11th overall since joining Bayern in 2023.
Overall, the former Tottenham striker has scored 82 goals in the Bundesliga for Bayern – the most of any player in the top five European leagues since his debut.
After Kane became the quickest player in Bundesliga history to reach 100 goal contributions against Heidenheim in December, Kompany said: “He’ll keep having a lot of individual records because he’s a special player.”
If Kane has been the protagonist, Bayern have also boasted an impressive supporting cast.
Seven different players scored in the 8-1 win against Wolfsburg last weekend, meaning Bayern have had 15 scorers this season – the joint most of any Bundesliga side.
It was also the 11th time they have scored four or more goals in a game this season.
Seven Bayern players have contributed at least three goals, which is second only to Arsenal across the major European leagues.
However, while the Gunners can sometimes be reliant on set-pieces to win matches, 50 of Bayern’s 66 league goals have been scored from open play, with only 10 coming via a corner or free-kick, plus six penalties.
This means the German champions can now target toppling another record – the most goals scored in an entire Bundesliga season, which stands at 101 by Bayern themselves in 1972.
Should their scoring rate continue at such a pace they may also be able to target Torino’s Serie A total of 125 goals in 1948 – an all-time record for a major European league.
Bayern’s current scoring average of 3.8 goals per game projects a total of 132 by May.
