FC Bayern Football Schools
FC Bayern has so far been active in Thailand mainly through intensive support in the conception and implementation of a nationwide football initiative (FC Bayern 12 Level Course). The next step in Thailand will be to establish an FC Bayern Football School in Bangkok.
- The sustainability of the partnership lives mainly through the constant exchange of knowledge and the regular presence of the highly qualified international FC Bayern youth coaches - both on-site in Thailand and during visits of the partner coaches and training camps of the players in Munich
- Thanks to the regular presence of our FC Bayern coaches, more than 400 Thai football coaches have already been trained. The best graduates have the chance to support the FC Bayern 12 Level Course in Thailand
- FC Bayern, in cooperation with its partner Sports Thai Bavaria (STB), has developed a 12-level (analogous to the 12 grades of the Thai school system) school course, the so-called FC Bayern 12 Level Course, which is currently taught in selected Thai schools
- The FC Bayern 12 Level course brings the currently practiced youth training philosophy of FC Bayern to Thailand. The age-specific curriculum is strongly based on FC Bayern's youth expertise and the experience of the German record champion in youth training
In November 2019, two FC Bayern coaches flew to Bangkok to host workshops for local football coaches and conducted multiple training sessions for boys and girls of different youth age-groups as part of the FC Bayern 12 Level Kurs. At the end of November 2019, a group of Thai coaches spent one week in Munich for additional workshops and first-hand experience at the FC Bayern Campus.
FC Bayern Youth Cup
The FC Bayern Youth Cup is the world's biggest and oldest international youth football tournament series carried out by a football club. In 2012 the tournament took place for the first time and has been conducted eight times since its start. The FC Bayern Youth Cup can look back on a long history in Thailand. Every year since 2014, a team from Thailand has taken part in the FC Bayern Youth Cup. Thanks to long-standing support of Wangkanai, the tournament was also held in Thailand in 2019.
In 2019, Team Thailand again participated at the FC Bayern Youth Cup. The starting point was set with the national qualification tournaments in January/February 2019, for which the youngsters were able to register since the 12th of December 2018.
The following qualifying tournaments took place:
- Bangkok on the 19th of January
- Chiang Mai on the 26th of January
- Khon Khan on the 9th of February
- Nakhon Ratcharisma on the 10th of February
- (Pattani on the 16th of February)
- Song Kha on the 16th of February
- and again Bangkok on the 2nd of March
The National Final was then played in Bangkok at the Thai-Japanese Stadium on the 17th of March. The 130 best players from the seven national qualifying rounds were invited to compete against 3,000 rivals. World champion and FC Bayern legend Klaus Augenthaler was on-site on behalf of the German record champion to select the ten best players who were allowed to travel to Munich in May.
The ten selected players travelled to munich for a 5-day training camp in May, where they enjoyed many highlights. The personal Meet & Greet with Manuel Neuer was one of many unforgettable experiences for the participants during the final week. Another highlight was the FC Bayern Youth Cup Final at the Allianz Arena in Munich, where the players had the honor to enter the "sacred grass" to determine the winner of the FC Bayern Youth Cup 2019. Team Thailand played against the competition from China, USA, Singapore, India, Nigeria and Germany and reached a strong fourth place.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19-Pandemic, the 9th consecutive edition of the Youth Cup sadly had to be rescheduled. We are hoping to bring the project back to Thailand in 2021 and see the Thai team compete in the world final.
