The club brought Bayern Munich millions in transfer fees! Bayern’s popular partner falls away

The MLS club, which jointly runs the "Red & Gold" venture with Bayern Munich, announced it in a statement on their own website at the end of June that had so far attracted little attention.

The statement read: "Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) today announced the strategic realignment of their international youth network and transferred their majority stake in Swiss club Grasshopper Club Zurich to Bridge Football Group Switzerland AG."

That leaves the German record champions without a key step in their own player development pathway. For years, Grasshoppers acted as a stop-off point for Munich's young players.

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Which players did Bayern Munich loan to Grasshoppers Zurich?

When a talent had outgrown Bayern's Regionalliga side but had not yet carved out a place in the star-studded squad at Säbener Strasse, a move to the Swiss Super League often proved the ideal next step.

Bayern Munich benefited from the model on the pitch and in the market. The latest prime example is Jonathan Asp Jensen. The 20-year-old Dane scored nine goals in 40 competitive appearances for Zurich.

Although that upturn in form ultimately was not enough to earn him a permanent place in the squad under head coach Vincent Kompany, the financial outcome was still lucrative: Spanish top-flight promoted side La Coruna signed the midfielder for a transfer fee of six million euros.

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Zurich fans were against the investor construct

Nestory Irankunda took a similar route. The Australian, also 20, got valuable minutes during a loan spell at Grasshoppers and brought a further three million euros into Munich's coffers in 2025 when he was sold to English second-tier club Watford FC. And that is not all: the Australia international is reportedly on the verge of another move to Sporting Lisbon for around 18 million euros, with 40 per cent of the fee going to Bayern - in other words, 7.2 million euros.

Bayern Munich also sent Lovro Zvonarek, who moved to Estrela Amadora last July for 1.5 million euros, and Grayson Dettoni, who signed permanently for Darmstadt 98 after his loan spell, to Switzerland.

The abrupt end to the partnership between the California-based MLS club and the Swiss side also has structural reasons. Above all, the hard core of Zurich's fans had been deeply critical of the international investor construct from the very beginning.

Los Angeles focus on cooperation with Innsbruck

LAFC have now acted on that and reshaped their activities in Europe. In future, the Americans want to focus primarily on cooperation with Austrian second-tier side Wacker Innsbruck.

Still, the search for further footholds is not over: according to reports, the Americans are continuing to monitor the European market closely in search of a new club investment. If they find a suitable target, Bayern Munich could once again benefit in future from a new development platform.

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