the transfer fee becoming the record transfer in Paraguayan football. He later revealed that he had the chance to join Real Madrid before he eventually signed with Bayern in 1999. Santa Cruz confessed that his teammates and himself had been mis-treated by Osvaldo Domínguez Dibb after bad performances from the first-team where the players' salaries were not deposited into their bank accounts in order for the players to personally collect it in person from the president and would be threatened by guns and knives. "I remember that we once lost an important regional derby. The president entered the sleeping room where we all spent the night ahead of games and unloaded his gun in the ceiling. That wasn't all though. When a player had put in a bad performance, he just strolled up to their car and urinated inside it while they were standing right next to him. The president always wanted us to come up to him to pick up our monthly wages. If you hadn't played well that month, he stood up and asked 'What is it you want?' while tapping a machine gun on his desk. That always prompted players to wait for their money until they had put in some better performances again." Bayern Munich 1999–2000 season Santa Cruz debuted for Bayern Munich in the 1999–00 Bundesliga season in a 2–0 loss against Bayer Leverkusen on 22 August 1999. Six days later, he scored his first league goal in the 40th minute of a 1–0 win against SpVgg Unterhaching on 28 August. He made his first appearance in the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League on 15 September in a 2–1 victory over PSV. His first goal in the Champions League came on his fifth appearance in the competition as Bayern lost 2–1 against PSV, as was substituted onto the field on 26 minutes for Paulo Sérgio and scored with a right-footed shot on 51 minutes. He ended the season with five goals in 28 league appearances as Bayern were crowned champions of the 1999–2000 Bundesliga season. Santa Cruz had also made consecutive Champions League appearances until the semi-final stages where Bayern Munich were knocked out by Real Madrid. On 6 May 2000, he was substituted onto the field on 73 minutes for Carsten Jancker during the 1999–2000 DFB-Pokal final as Bayern Munich beat Werder Bremen 3–0. Santa Cruz finished the season with nine goals in 48 matches.