What happened to former Bayern Munich striker Roy Makaay?

In his heyday, Roy Makaay was a fearsome striker. You only have to look at the stats of the former footballer, who impressed both in the Netherlands and abroad, to realise this. Let's take a look back at the career of the man dubbed 'The Phantom'.

Makaay began his career with Vitesse in 1993. He would score a total of 42 goals for the club and attracted the interest of foreign teams.

CD Tenerife brought Makaay to Spain in 1997, a move the club would not regret. The Dutchman scored 21 times, but looked elsewhere after only two seasons.

Makaay signed a contract with Deportivo La Coruña, which was a Spanish top club at the time. The transfer was valued at 8.6 million euros (Transfermarkt).

Makaay immediately impressed in Galicia by scoring a hat-trick on his league debut. It was the start of a very successful period in the striker's career.

In the 1999/00 season, Makaay, who scored 22 times, crowned himself Spanish champion with Deportivo. Later, he added one Spanish cup and two super cups to his tally.

Makaay scored with his eyes closed in northern Spain. In the 2002/03 season, he became Spain's top scorer with 29 goals and won the European Golden Shoe.

Makaay's Spanish adventure ended in the summer of 2003, when he signed a contract with German giants Bayern Munich.

In Germany, Makaay simply kept on doing what he was good at: scoring. His quality of being invisible for an entire match and still scoring earned him the nickname 'Das Phantom' ('The Phantom').

The striker also picked up several trophies in Germany, including two league titles and two cups.

At Bayern, he also scored the fastest ever Champions League goal against Real Madrid after 10.12 seconds in March 2007.

After 103 goals in four years for Der Rekordmeister, Makaay returned to the Netherlands and signed with Feyenoord.

Makaay immediately became popular with Feyenoord fans and won one Dutch cup with the Rotterdam club. In May 2010, he bid farewell in style by scoring a hat-trick against sc Heerenveen in the league.

Makaay also made 43 appearances for the Netherlands during his career, scoring six goals. However, those stats pale in comparison to his goal production at his clubs.

After his retirement from professional football, Makaay joined Feyenoord to work as a forward coach and U21 coach.

In 2021, he became assistant coach to compatriot Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Rangers.

In March 2023, however, word got around that Makaay would return to Bayern, where he would take charge of the FC Bayern World Squad, completing the circle of his impressive career, it seems.