Marc Kosicke, the long-time adviser to Jürgen Klopp, is moving to the German national team as strategy director under the new DFB coach. But before that transition, the Bremen native left an unexpected mark on Bayern Munich — crafting the club's defining philosophy into an official slogan that would shape the organisation for years to come.
In 2008, Kosicke found himself on a plane to Switzerland for a FIFA event alongside then-Bayern president Uli Hoeneß. What started as casual conversation became a turning point. Hoeneß expressed frustration that his own players lacked clarity on what Bayern Munich fundamentally stood for. When asked directly what the club meant to him, the legendary president admitted he couldn't articulate a clear answer. That moment sparked the commission that would define an era.
Building a Club Bible
Hoeneß asked Kosicke to develop something comparable to the corporate frameworks he had encountered during his years working with Nike and Adidas — what those companies called "company bibles." These documents outlined core values and messages for every employee. Kosicke, armed with confidence if not complete certainty, accepted the challenge on the spot.
Rather than importing expensive management consultants, Hoeneß insisted Kosicke work with Bayern's own people. The team assembled was deliberately diverse: staff from the fan shop, marketing personnel, kit men, youth coordinators, and scouts like Wolfgang Dremmler. For four weeks, this cross-functional group workshopped Bayern's identity. The result: 16 commandments that would become the foundation of club culture. Principles like "We are a family and stand up for one another" and "We do not communicate about one another in public" emerged from these sessions.
Kosicke had conceived the slogan Mia san mia — the Bavarian phrase meaning "We are who we are" — before the formal working group even began. He kept it close during initial discussions, waiting for the right moment to unveil it. When he presented prototype copies bound in leather to the board, the reaction was immediate enthusiasm. However, Hoeneß spotted an error: the cover read "Mir san mir" rather than the correct Bavarian dialect. As a northerner, Kosicke's linguistic slip had nearly cost the club's most iconic phrase its authenticity.
Legacy and Departure
The implementation roadmap Kosicke designed ensured every new arrival — from office staff to youth academy players to Sadio Mane — received the club bible upon joining. The message was consistent: these are our values, this is who we are. Kosicke deliberately assigned all rights to the slogan to Bayern, stepping back from any personal credit. His work at Bayern concluded once the framework was established and invoiced.
Now, with his departure to join Klopp at the DFB, Kosicke closes a chapter that transformed how modern football clubs articulate their identity. His shadow role — advising from behind the scenes across two decades with Klopp — defined his career. Yet his fingerprints remain on one of football's most recognisable club philosophies, a philosophy that Bayern would carry forward into their next chapter of success.
