With a well-tuned sense of drama, superstars Franck Ribéry and Luca Toni were the last players to emerge from the dressing room for the first training session of the day on Tuesday. The pair joined their new coach Ottmar Hitzfeld and posed for photographers, before completing their first 110-minute training session at Bayern.
Ribéry and Toni have finally arrived in Munich, a dynamic duo bristling with intent on their first day at the club. "We have an extremely good team on paper. Our goal is to win both the Bundesliga and the Cup," the Italian striker declared. Ribéry went even further: "The club has made a great effort to bring in a number of high quality players. Now we all want to win the league, and also the Uefa Cup," he remarked.
Huge media interest
A crowd of 1,000 fans and several dozen media representatives watched as the Bavarians' two biggest signings of the summer trained in Munich for the first time. Both confirmed they had been warmly received by their new team-mates. "Bayern prepared extremely well for my arrival and provided me with the perfect start when I arrived yesterday evening. Everything was laid on for me at the hotel," Ribéry reported.
Both general manager Uli Hoeneß and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge stopped by to offer a word of welcome in the morning. "We're delighted they're both here. We were determined to sign them. We're thrilled and proud," Rummenigge commented.
Learning the language
Toni will take over the number 9 shirt last worn by Giovane Elber, while Ribéry inherits the number 7 made famous by Mehmet Scholl. The club is keen to help the pair settle as quickly as possible, and will provide each man with a personal adviser. "They'll have problems with the language at the start," the chairman observed.
"I've been speaking English, Spanish and everything else you could think of in the dressing room," Toni smiled, after surprising the throng at the Säbener Strasse on his arrival with a cheery Grüß Gott, the conventional form of greeting in Bavaria. Apart from learning German, the Italian is keen to find out more about his new home city, and intends to live close to the centre of Munich.
First session for Jansen
"I had surgery on my foot, so I have some catching up to do," Toni explained after taking it relatively easy in the morning, but Ribéry was in the leading group for sprinting and running. "I always want to win. I give it 100 percent every day in training and in matches. I'm not frightened of drenching myself in sweat or occasionally getting a mouthful of turf," the Frenchman declared.
Alongside the men who appeared in last summer's World Cup final, Marcell Jansen trained for the first time at his new club after ridding himself of the flu. Long-term injury victims Bastian Schweinsteiger, Valerien Ismaël and Christian Lell also resumed the squad programme, with prodigal son Ze Roberto due in Munich at the weekend, helping coach Hitzfeld intensify his efforts to shape the new Bayern Munich.
Topics of this article