Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm is about to enter the last two seasons of his playing career and is aiming to crown his autumn years with another Champions League title.
“My career does not have long to go. And my big goal is definitely to win the Champions League again,” Lahm told a news conference in Chicago late Tuesday ahead of Bayern’s friendly match with AC Milan.
Now aged 32, Lahm has already said he intends to retire when his current contract with the Bundesliga record champions expires in 2018.
Lahm was part of Bayern’s treble-winning team of 2013 which lifted the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley but since then he has had to make do with domestic success for his club.
“The desire is great,” he said after Bayern’s first training session on their latest PR trip to the United States.
And he is likely speaking not only for himself but a whole group of Bayern players whose careers are much nearer the end than the beginning.

Old squad
Franck Ribery (33), Arjen Robben (32) and Xabi Alonso (34) are all members of the Bayern squad who have an anxious eye on the clock, especially as their contracts, unlike Lahm’s, expire after this season.
“With us there are a few players who are still in a good football age, but whose playing days are approaching the end,” Lahm said.
“(But) this does not mean that we cannot still play at an absolute top level.”
With four key players all at such an age, new coach Carlo Ancelotti will be aware that a restructuring is needed in the months ahead.
But Lahm hopes the transition can be made gradually rather than at a stroke.
“The good thing is that there is a middle group with us,” Lahm said. “There are not only old players and young players, rather we have those in between like Thomas Mueller, Jerome Boateng and even David Alaba.
“They also have a lot of experience at their age.”
The middle-age contingent has been joined by Lahm’s fellow World Cup winner from 2014, Mats Hummels, after a big money move back to his boyhood club from Borussia Dortmund.
“Mats Hummels is an experienced player,” Lahm said. “He has played with Bayern before and comes back now.
He is a seasoned international and will definitely be very important for us in the future with his experience.”
In each of previous coach Pep Guardiola’s three seasons in charge, Bayern were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Ancelotti has been tasked with making the next step in search of the club’s sixth European crown. “Once you’ve won the Champions League were often in the final, you know how great that is,” Lahm said. “But we also all know how difficult that is.”