The former Germany star claims the Blaugrana’s performance in the Champions League last term has demonstrated that they are past their best.

Barcelona’s era of dominance in football is over, according to Bayern Munich legend Oliver Kahn.

The Blaugrana won three Ligas, two Champions League titles and two Copa del Rey trophies under then-coach Pep Guardiola who is now at Bayern.

Kahn believes Guardiola will be able to keep the treble winners at the top in football, despite many experts predicting Barca to bounce back under Gerardo Martino and the signing of Neymar.

“I believe that Barcelona’s best days are over,” Kahn told TV Movie.

“There are no dominant teams in Europe which a German side must fear.

“The formative success of Bayern calls for a change and new ideas. I think the team will find a solution to this task with their many intelligent players.”

Barca face Sevilla at Camp Nou this weekend before turning their focus towards their Champions League opener with Ajax on September 18.

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The Netherlands star is disheartened that three important players are ruled out already ahead of a challenging part of the campaign for the Bavarians.

Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben is worried about the absence of important players in his team ahead of a busy stage of the season.

Mario Gotze, Thiago Alcantara and Javi Martinez are still suffering from injury and have been ruled out for the encounters against Hannover on Saturday and the first Champions League clash against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday.

And the 29-year-old feels it is going to be challenging to compensate for those losses in the upcoming weeks.

“Now it begins,” the Dutchman told reporters on Thursday.

“We need all our players. It’s a pity that three important players are ruled out already.”

The Bavarians have recently presented the team’s new away jerseys for the 2013-14 season, which are inspired by traditional Oktoberfest outfits.

“I hope that we will be able to win our first game in the new jerseys,” Robben added.

Bayern face a heavily congested fixture list, with seven games coming up between September 14 and October 5 before the international break.

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Real Madrid legend Luis Figo has claimed it is “odious” to suggest that Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed Eusebio as Portugal’s greatest ever player.

The 28-year-old recently leap-frogged the Benfica great to become his country’s second most prolific goalscorer, with his hat-trick against Northern Ireland on Friday taking him to 43 international goals.

Debate has since raged over whether the current Blancos star could be considered the greatest Portuguese player of all time but Figo has refuted the suggestions, insisting Eusebio is in a league of his own.

“It is an odious comparison,” he told Marca. “I don’t think Eusebio can be compared with anyone, for me he is king.

“It is very subjective to distinguish who is the best between Eusebio, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Diego Maradona or whoever because everyone has their own opinion.”

Ronaldo is four goals away from earning the title of his country’s most prolific goalscorer of all time, with Pauleta sitting top with 47 goals.

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The 26-year-old admits that the France international was a worthy winner of the one of the continent’s most prestigious individual honours.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi has conceded that Bayern Munich ace Franck Ribery deserved to win Uefa’s Best Player in Europe award.

The Argentine and Cristiano Ronaldo were pipped to the award at a Uefa ceremony in Monaco in August and the 26-year-old says Ribery’s treble success with Bayern Munich meant the right man walked away with the prize.

“It was an honour to be in this race again, among the best three players in Europe,” he told Uefa.

“There are so many great players in the world and it is a real pleasure to be in the competition, but he [Ribery] deserved to win the trophy.”

The Blaugrana were humbled 7-0 on aggregate by the German giants en route to the Champions League crown last season.

And while Messi admits that the defeat left a “bitter taste” in his mouth, he believes the team must not dwell on the past if they are to bounce back from last year’s disappointment in Europe.

“We always want to achieve more. Winning the league was very important because of what it signified – winning it back after Real Madrid had won it last year,” he added.

“There’s also a bitter taste after what happened in the semi-final against Bayern München, where there was a big gap between the two teams – we didn’t go into it in our best shape.

“But that’s the past and we have to look forward.”

The Catalans resume their Liga campaign following the international break by welcoming Sevilla to Camp Nou on Saturday.

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The Ghana international has dismissed suggestions that he wanted to return to the Bundesliga due to racism in Serie A.

Kevin Prince-Boateng has insisted that Italy is not a racist country despite being subjected to abuse prior to his move to Schalke from AC Milan.

The club’s chief financial officer Peter Peters claimed earlier this month that the Ghana international’s desire to move was driven by racism in Italy, but he later admitted that his initial assumption regarding the attacking midfielder’s motives to leave Serie A had proved to be completely wrong.

Boateng has now had his say on the matter as well and has stressed that he did not leave Milan because of racist incident.

“I don’t leave a country and lump all inhabitants together only because 10 people shout ignorant slogans,” the 26-year-old told Kicker.

“I want to get one thing straight: Italy is not a racist country.”

Boateng spent three seasons at Milan, winning one Serie A title in the process, before his return to Germany this summer.

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The current San Lorenzo coach has nothing but praise for the Argentina star and feels he would well be worth a huge transfer fee.

Former Barcelona attacker Juan Antonio Pizzi believes that Lionel Messi would be worth €100 million and added that the 26-year-old is arguably one of the best players in the history of the game.

The transfer of Gareth Bale from Tottenham to Real Madrid for a world record fee of €100m caused uproar about the amount of money being spent in football, yet Pizzi has insisted that the Argentine would merit such a fee.

“Messi is worth €100m,” Pizzi told La Xarxa.

“His statistics are insurmountable. I don’t think that anyone will ever break his records on the short or long term.

“We are talking about the best or at least one of the best players ever.”

Pizzi, 45, represented Barcelona from 1996 until 1998, winning La Liga once and the Copa del Rey twice during his time at Camp Nou.

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