This is a question that has been growing in the footballing world over the past couple of years. One of Bayern Munich’s key players, Franck Ribery, who is known to have a very serious issue with injuries, seemed to be playing at his best during international matches for his national team France. These tweets below from sportswriter Rupert Fryer show this trend:
After the 2012 Euros, this article from Inside World Football talks about how it seems to be an epidemic in French football for top players not wanting to miss games because they are afraid their chance to go play for a team like Bayern Munich will disappear once they reach a certain age. The sport itself does seem pretty clean, and I also looked around online and have found no evidence to show the players are doping, but it is something that has caught my eye, and I am not too sure whether it is just a coincidence or there may be something else going on. For Ribery’s case specifically, he was also accused of using performance-enhancing drugs by Arif Rahimov in 2009 after Rahimov claimed his blood samples tested positive during an out-of-competition drug test. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) dropped all charges against Ribery because there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the tests were valid.
As for now, I can say with confidence that Bayern Munich does not use steroids as part of their training regiments.