Ok, the “mother” news is not a big surprise: Bayern Munich has won the 35th Bundesliga title in its history, has lifted the Meisterschale for the 13th time in the last 14 years, and did so with four matchdays to spare, defeating Stuttgart at home and taking advantage of Borussia Dortmund’s simultaneous loss on Saturday in Sinsheim against Hoffenheim. And so the big party at the Allianz Arena could begin, the first of the season while waiting for the end of the other competitions – Kompany’s team is qualified for the semifinals of the Champions League and the DFB-Pokal.
Everyone, of course, would imagine that Kane, Olise, Gnabry, Kimmich, Upamecano, Neuer, or Kompany himself were the stars of the celebrations. Instead, the most important role went to a porcelain figurine. A figurine depicting a bird, to be precise a cockatoo (in German kakadu) that Bayern has literally adopted: the players posed with it for a photo under the Südkurve, the section of organized fans, along with all the staff, dancing and singing, Kompany brought it to last year’s award ceremony and now it found itself on the pitch of the Allianz Arena at the moment of celebrating the championship victory.
Yes, but how and when did this love for a porcelain kakadu begin? It all started during last year’s title celebrations when the players were at the Käfer restaurant in Munich. Here they noticed a porcelain figurine shaped like a cockatoo, which is a particular species of parrot that mainly lives in Australia. They immediately fell in love with it and decided to take it with them. However, no one has ever openly admitted who “took” it. The playful gesture transformed the bird into a true symbol of the team, to the point that the owner of the establishment later “forgave” the taking of the bird and chose to officially gift the figurine to the club, making it a good luck charm.
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Flash Forward to 2026: the cockatoo has remained inside Bayern, has accompanied the team throughout the season – to the point that the players had a custom case made to transport it without problems – and now it has come out for the first seasonal celebration. And that’s not all: when it came time to choose which image to put on the celebratory shirt for the Bundesliga victory, there were no doubts: the kakadu was stylized and immortalized on the white T-shirts worn by the players after the victory, while the “real” one passed from player to player, from shoulder to shoulder. In short: born from a playful and impulsive gesture, this relationship with a porcelain bird represents a winning Bayern, as usual, but also united and self-ironic. Until it became a mascot, a good luck charm, and even a commercial icon.