Even by Bayern Munich standards, it's been an unusually dominant year in Germany.
A 4-0 win at Heidenheim on Sunday meant Vincent Kompany's team ends 2025 nine points clear in the Bundesliga, well on the way to retaining the title it won back in May after Bayer Leverkusen's one-season reign. A first domestic double since 2020 is possible, too.
“It was an amazing year. To be able to win the league with this team was really special for me,” Bayern striker Harry Kane said Sunday. “I felt like from that moment, even in the Club World Cup (in June), we started to build a spirit and a team energy that’s hard to break.”
Just once in 2025 has Bayern lost to German opposition, 3-2 against humble Bochum in March. The team's goal difference 15 games into this Bundesliga season is a barely believable +44, far more than any other team in Europe's "big five" leagues.
Kane has scored 30 goals for Bayern in all competitions this season, while Luis Díaz has shone since arriving from Liverpool for a reported 75 million euros ($87 million) and 17-year-old Lennart Karl has been a revelation.
Even long-term injuries to Jamal Musiala, Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano couldn't slow Bayern down as the team started 2025-26 on a 16-game winning run.
So what comes next?
Winning the Bundesliga is the minimum for any Bayern coach. The club has done a solid job in replicating that German consistency in Europe this season, but the real tests are yet to come.
A quarterfinal exit to Inter Milan in the 2024-25 Champions League was a tough blow, while losing to Paris Saint-Germain at the same stage of the Club World Cup was more understandable, especially since that game saw a grisly injury to Musiala.
Bayern is now second in the Champions League table and won plaudits for its grit in beating PSG with 10 men, though a meek 3-1 loss to Arsenal was a warning there's still work left to do.
There's also the German Cup. Since Bayern's last win in 2020, it hasn't been past the quarterfinals.
Coach Kompany has a decision to make when Musiala finally returns from the leg fracture that's kept him out since July. Does he change a winning team to incorporate a player who was crucial to Bayern last season but is yet to play with Díaz?
Bayern's consistency is mirrored by the instability of its main German rivals.
Second-place Borussia Dortmund ends the year with unrest in the squad after defender Nico Schlotterbeck criticized his teammates' work rate and forward Karim Adeyemi protested against a decision to substitute him.
Leverkusen started the year in chaos with coach Erik ten Hag dismissed after three games, though Kasper Hjulmand has steadied the ship and even stunned Manchester City.
A lack of European games has allowed Leipzig to focus on the Bundesliga, but it's a long way from the league's best, as shown in a 6-0 loss to Bayern on opening day and a 3-1 loss to Leverkusen in the last game before the winter break.
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Bayern's Harry Kane reacts during the Bundesliga soccer match between FC Heidenheim and Bayern Munich, in Heidenheim, Germany, Sunday Dec. 21, 2025. (Harry Langer/dpa via AP)
The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted Monday that the U.S. won't take over Greenland and demanded respect for their territorial integrity after President Donald Trump announced the appointment of a special envoy to Greenland.
Trump's announcement on Sunday that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry would be the U.S. special envoy prompted a new flare-up of tensions over Washington's interest in the vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. Denmark's foreign minister said in comments to Danish broadcasters that he plans to summon the U.S. ambassador.
”We have said it before. Now, we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said in a joint statement. “They are fundamental principles. You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security.”
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland,” they added in the statement, emailed by Frederiksen's office. "We expect respect for our joint territorial integrity.”
Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island. In March, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote U.S. military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of underinvesting there.
The issue gradually drifted out of the headlines, but in August, Danish officials summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen following a report that at least three people with connections to Trump had carried out covert influence operations in Greenland. Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States.
On Sunday, Trump announced Landry's appointment as special envoy, saying that “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.”
Landry wrote in a post on X that “it’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a brief statement that “the appointment confirms the continued American interest in Greenland.”
"However, we insist that everyone — including the U.S. — must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” he added.
Danish broadcasters TV2 and DR reported that in comments from the Faroe Islands later Monday, Løkke Rasmussen said he will call in the U.S. ambassador in Copenhagen, Kenneth Howery, for a meeting at the ministry.
Before issuing the joint statement with Frederiksen, Nielsen wrote on Facebook that Denmark had again woken up to a new announcement from the U.S. president, but it “does not change anything for us at home.”
Earlier this month, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service said in an annual report that the U.S. is using its economic power to “assert its will” and threaten military force against friend and foe alike.
Denmark is a member of the European Union as well as NATO.
Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the EU's executive Commission, told reporters in Brussels Monday that it wasn't for him to comment on U.S. decisions. But he underlined the bloc's position that "preserving the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, its sovereignty and the inviolability of its borders is essential for the European Union.”
FILE - Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks to reporters at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen smile during their meeting at Marienborg in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, on April 27, 2025. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
FILE - Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the U.S. military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, Friday, March 28, 2025. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP, File)
FILE - Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen speaks during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
