Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, the legendary former team doctor of Bayern Munich, has broken his silence on the explosive dressing room confrontation with then-manager Pep Guardiola that led to his sudden resignation in April 2015.
In an interview with Der Spiegel, the 82-year-old physician described the day of his departure as “a terrible day,” pinpointing April 15 — the night Bayern lost the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Porto 3–1.
According to Müller-Wohlfahrt, Guardiola and other club officials publicly blamed him for the defeat in front of the entire team inside the dressing room. “They said we had too many injured players and that I was letting players recover for too long,” he recalled. “That was completely absurd. I refused to accept that.”
The doctor, renowned for treating elite athletes worldwide, said he was “outraged by the misjudgment.” He defended his methods, stating: “Top athletes from all over the world come to me because my diagnostics are more precise, the recovery process is often faster than elsewhere, and because my medications have no side effects.”
However, he added, “the recovery wasn’t fast enough for Pep Guardiola.” Müller-Wohlfahrt suggested that Guardiola was accustomed to having the final say on medical matters during his time at Barcelona. “But things were different in Munich up to that point,” he said.
The doctor emphasized that he had always enjoyed the respect and trust of previous Bayern coaches. He recalled that Dettmar Cramer once described him as “a stroke of luck for German football,” and that Udo Lattek routinely waited until the last minute to announce the lineup, saying: “The doctor has the final say.”
Müller-Wohlfahrt also pointed to the absence of former club president Uli Hoeneß, who was serving a prison sentence for tax evasion at the time. “Uli Hoeneß, who always stood by me, was in prison at that time. Had he been at the club, the falling out with Guardiola would not have happened — I’m sure of that.”
Müller-Wohlfahrt resigned from his post just days after the Porto defeat, ending a decades-long association with Bayern. Guardiola left the club at the end of the 2015–16 season. Bayern went on to beat Porto in the return leg but were eliminated in the semi-finals by Barcelona.
