Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry were an iconic wing pair for Bayern Munich, but Michael Olise and Luis Díaz have some questioning if they might be even better.
Bayern Munich are scoring goals this season like they have an addiction to Galop Infernal from Jacques Offenbach’s opera Orpheus in the Underworld, or the ‘can-can’ music.
That’s the song played after every goal at Bayern, and if you’ve seen them at home this season, it might be stuck in your brain like an earworm. It feels like they’ve had it on a continuous loop, such has been their effectiveness at popping the ball into the opposition’s net.
After 22 Bundesliga games in 2025-26, Vincent Kompany’s men have fired in a remarkable 82 goals, an average of 3.7 per game. With a six-point advantage over second-place Borussia Dortmund, Bayern are well on course to seal yet another Bundesliga title.
xG Map Excluding Own GoalsHarry Kane has obviously played a big part in that. The England striker has 26 goals in the league this season, at least twice as many as any other Bundesliga player, and already as many as he scored in the whole of last season.
However, two other chief weapons also plucked from the Premier League are playing huge roles themselves.
Michael Olise had a standout debut season in Germany in 2024-25, with 27 Bundesliga goal involvements (12 goals, 15 assists), and he’s backed that up with another solid campaign. The former Crystal Palace winger already has 26 goal involvements in the league (10 goals, 16 assists), and now he has a partner in crime on the other side.
Luis Díaz arrived from Liverpool last summer and has taken no time at all getting settled in Germany. The Colombian has 23 Bundesliga goal involvements in 21 games (13 goals, 10 assists).
The potency of the pair is unparalleled. Olise and Díaz are the only two players in Europe’s top five leagues to have double figures for both goals and assists this season.
They are Bayern’s chief creators and among the best in Europe for making chances. Only four players from the continent’s top five leagues have created more chances from open play than Olise (48), while only six have created more than Díaz (45).
On top of that, only Inter’s Federico Dimarco (26) has created more ‘big chances’ than Olise (21), while the Bayern star’s 12.4 expected assists (xA) is at least 4.1 more than any other player from Europe’s top five leagues (Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is next with 8.3).
Such output from Olise and Díaz has inevitably led to comparisons with the dynamic and iconic former Bayern duo of Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. Both players spent over a decade at the Allianz Arena, terrorising defences from either wing and firing the Rekordmeister to multiple trophies through their goals and assists.
Bayern’s director of sport, Max Eberl, recently said: “When I see [Olise’s] position and moves, he resembles Arjen Robben. We were just talking about it in the dressing room. He’s kind of like the new Robben we have – delicate, elegant.
“And with Lucho [Díaz] on the other side, we have the Franck Ribéry type, the creative chaos maker. Our wing duo is exceptional.”
The trio of Leroy Sané, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry have also produced plenty from wide attacking positions for Bayern in recent years, but this does feel like the first time since both Robben and Ribéry left the club in 2019 that they have had this level of consistent output from their wingers.
Between them, Robben and Ribéry totalled 330 goal involvements in 474 Bundesliga games for Bayern, and 477 goal involvements in 732 games across all competitions.
Their most productive season as a pair in the Bundesliga was 2011-12, when they managed 41 goal involvements between them (Ribéry – 24, Robben – 17).
Olise and Díaz have a combined 76 goal involvements from 76 Bundesliga games, and 105 in 131 outings across all competitions.
For the sake of this comparison, though, we’ll just be looking at Bundesliga records given the difference in the structure of the modern Champions League.
Olise and Díaz already have a combined total of 49 Bundesliga goal involvements this season – though obviously those aren’t 49 separate goals as some of them will have been one assisting the other. That’s already more than Robben and Ribéry ever managed in a single season between them, with 12 games remaining.
They aren’t necessarily creating more chances, though. Olise is averaging 3.1 chances created per 90 in 2025-26, while Díaz is averaging 2.4. By comparison, Ribéry’s most creative season was 2007-08 when he averaged 3.8 chances created per 90, while Robben’s was 2011-12 when he averaged 2.9 chances created per 90.
Playing with Kane, who has 26 league goals and a 30.6% conversion rate in 2025-26, has obviously helped Olise and Díaz rack up the assists. In fact, Bayern have a shot-conversion rate (including blocked shots) of 19.7% in the Bundesliga this season, the best by a team in any German top-flight season on record (since 2004-05), ahead of Borussia Dortmund’s 18.9% in 2019-20. The next best from Bayern was 17.0% in 2020-21.
Robben and Ribéry played with some pretty good strikers themselves, though, including Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose, Mario Gomez and Robert Lewandowski.
There is also reliability to consider. Olise and Díaz have both missed just one league game each this season, and that regular availability has likely been a factor in the consistency of their output. By comparison, in a combined 23 Bundesliga campaigns, Ribéry only once featured in more than 28 games (32 in 2011-12), while Robben never did. Ribéry averaged 22.8 appearances during his 12 seasons in the Bundesliga, while Robben averaged just 20.1 in his 10 seasons.
Away from just goals and assists, Eberl compared the players’ styles. However, the data suggests perhaps there are some notable differences.
Robben and Ribéry put in more open-play crosses, with Ribéry’s peak in the 2007-08 season (5.9 crosses per 90, 1.2 successful) and Robben’s in the 2010-11 campaign (4.2 crosses per 90, 1.0 successful). This season, Olise has averaged 2.6 open-play crosses per 90 (0.7 successful) while Díaz has averaged 2.0 (0.3 successful).
That, of course, could owe more to the difference in styles of Robben and Ribéry back in the day. Kompany, meanwhile, has Olise and Díaz playing a more modern game that invites them to get closer to goal more often.
In only two of his 12 seasons, Ribéry averaged more touches in the opposition’s box per 90 than Olise (8.7) and Díaz (8.9) are this season, while Robben only did so in one of his 10 Bundesliga campaigns. Ribéry also never averaged as many shots per 90 as either Olise (3.7) and Díaz (3.3) are in 2025-26.
Olise really has been sensational since his move to Bayern. He assisted 24 goals in his first 50 Bundesliga appearances – no other player on record (since 2004-05) has provided as many in their first half-century of Bundesliga games.
He also drew comparisons with his fellow compatriot Ribéry in January when he came off the bench at RB Leipzig to assist three goals, as well as score in a 5-1 victory. Olise became just the second player on record (since 2004-05) to assist three goals after coming on as a sub in a Bundesliga match, after Ribéry did so against Wolfsburg in 2019.
That game was the third in a run of six consecutive Bundesliga games in which Olise recorded at least one assist – the only other Bayern player to achieve this since 2004-05 was Thomas Müller in 2021 (7). Olise’s assist for Díaz in the recent 5-1 win over Hoffenheim was his 16th in the Bundesliga this term, taking him past his tally from last season (15).
As for Díaz, with 23 goals and assists in the Bundesliga, he has already beaten his best total of goal involvements for Liverpool in the Premier League (18 in 2024-25). He has also recorded three goal involvements in a Bundesliga match four times this season – the second most of all players, only after Kane (five times).
His return of 13 goals this season is already more than Ribéry ever managed in a Bundesliga campaign (12 in 2011-12), while both he and Olise could also still better Robben’s best effort of 17 goals in 2014-15.
3 – With Michael Olise (16), Julian Ryerson (11) and Luis Díaz (10), three players have recorded 10+ assists in this Bundesliga season – in the other four top-five leagues in Europe, there are only two players with 10+ assists (F. Dimarco and B. Fernandes with 12 each). Creators. pic.twitter.com/KmRXZEXq1Q
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) February 16, 2026None of this is to talk Robben or Ribéry’s accomplishments down. They were two outstanding wingers who played a significant role in Bayern’s illustrious history over a long period, and that Olise and Díaz are being compared to them is a huge compliment.
Where Robben and Ribéry likely will come out on top in any future debate is their longevity. With Díaz 29 years old, and Olise (24) being linked with a move back to the Premier League already, it seems unlikely either will spend as long in Germany as Robben and Ribéry did.
But for the time being, they are the most productive pair of wingers in European football. Comparisons with past players will always be subjective, but that’s half the fun of football discussion.
How many more goals can Bayern Munich plunder this season? The sky really does feel like the limit. They only need another 20 in their last 12 games to break the Bundesliga record of 101 goals, achieved by Bayern themselves in the 1971-72 campaign.
The form of Díaz and Olise will likely play a big part in how high they can raise the bar.
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Are Olise and Díaz Really the New Robben and Ribéry? Opta Analyst.
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