On his blog, the 42-year-old Kahn has charged that the pair’s lack of aggressive leadership is the reason Bayern hasn’t brought a Champions League title to Germany since 2001.

“Does the lull in titles not perhaps lie with a generation of players like Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger, who vehemently deny a team needs players to lead it?” Kahn, who won the Champions League with Bayern and retired three years ago, wrote on his blog.

But Lahm hit back at a press conference on Tuesday.

“What a former player says or writes in some blog doesn’t interest me, Bastian or the team,” he said, adding that he felt “no anger” toward Kahn and was “very calm about the whole thing.”

Schweinsteiger also criticized Kahn in a conversation with the German newspaper Bild.

“I can still remember how Oliver Kahn used to hate nothing more than criticism from ex-colleagues which were expressed through the media,” he told the newspaper. “From such a great player, I expect that he remembers his words.”

The controversy has erupted as Bayern Munich prepare to play FC Zurich in the first match of this year’s Champions League campaign on Wednesday.

The team, which is widely thought to have the potential to win the competition this year, has come under intense pressure since the final will be played at Bayern’s own stadium in Munich.

Lahm and Schweinsteiger are also feeling pressure from fans of Germany’s national team who want to see the squad easily qualify for the 2014 World Cup.

The Local/DPA/mdm