'We are the champions'

An army of fans decked out in red and covered with umbrellas lined the streets of Munich on Sunday to welcome Bayern back from the German Cup final in Berlin.

The celebration was shown live on public television, as Bayern players celebrated on an open top bus. Just in front, a car in Bayern red carried a Perspex case on its roof, displaying the Bundesliga, Champions League and German Cup trophies. The parade ended, as is tradition, in the Marienplatz square in Munich's historic center. Songs and chants including "Jupp, Jupp, Jupp" for outgoing coach Heynckes; "Super Bayern" started by Heynckes himself; and the predictable Queen number "We are the Champions!" all rang out.

Bayern on Saturday became the first German team to win such a treble, beating Stuttgart 3-2 in the German Cup final in Berlin. A reporter asked Bayern attacker Thomas Müller, who scored one and made another on Saturday, how long the initial celebrations in the capital had lasted.

"I don't rightly know," Müller confessed. "I left at seven in the morning and there were still people there."

For all the late night revelry, Bayern players like Arjen Robben did not want to grumble about tiredness.

"A holiday," Robben said when asked what he was looking forward to next. The reporter then queried whether he wasn't hoping for a little shut-eye. "No, not sleep, but a little sun maybe," the Dutch winger replied in the streaming rain and 9-degree Celsius (48.2 Fahrenheit) temperatures, as flood warnings were issued in parts of Bavaria on Sunday.

A Song for Bayern, from Dante

Brazilian international defender Dante, who was called away by his country ahead of the Cup final, also offered a video greeting to his colleagues live from rather sunnier climes.

"Servus lads," Dante said, using a traditional southern greeting in his heavily accented German. He then sang a repeated chorus of "We won the league, the Champions League – and the German Cup too," before kissing the Bayern emblem on his jersey and expressing his joy in colloquial German that's perhaps best left without translation.

There was plenty of hefeweizen beer showers to go around, including one for Franck Ribery from Anatoly Tymoshchuk - perhaps a demonstrative attempt to show that media reports of Ribery, a Muslim, being upset with his colleague Jerome Boateng for dousing him after the Champions League win were blown out of all proportion. Ribery made a point, speaking to the crowd from the balcony with a microphone, of asking Tymoshchuk to target him.

Bayern Munich also confirmed on Sunday that veteran Tymoshchuk would return to Zenit St Petersburg next season. The 34-year-old, who has won more silverware than any other Ukrainian player after Saturday's cup triumph, had already announced that this would be his last season at the club. Bayern had signed Tymoshchuk from the Russian club in the summer of 2009, not long after losing 4-0 to them in continental competition.