The Klinsmann era at Bayern has officially begun. The 43-year-old started work as head coach at Germany’s most successful club on Monday. Klinsmann talked fcbayern.de through the plan for his first working day, from his arrival at the Säbener Strasse, his first team meeting, and the busy schedule through to dinner.
Klinsmann's first day at Bayern
08.30: Jürgen Klinsmann enters the new performance centre at the Säbener Strasse, setting up his locker and desk in the head coach's office before greeting his personal fitness coaches.
08.45: Klinsmann casts an eye over the training ground for the first time. With the help of his assistants, he runs through the exercises the team will be asked to perform that afternoon. “We'll be doing this quite often,” he tells fcbayern.de.
10.30: Klinsmann gives his first interview as Bayern head coach. He takes 20 minutes out to give FCB.tv a detailed account of his plans in Munich.
11.30: Klinsmann meets his team for the first time. Twelve of the 24 first-team professionals are present for the meeting on the new roof terrace, the rest are still on holiday. The new chief coach introduces himself and his coaching staff, and - over the occasional espresso - begins an informal conversation, telling them of his expectations for the future. After that Klinsmann gives his players a tour of the new performance centre.
12.00: Coaches and team enjoy lunch together; Klinsmann has invited the construction managers of the new performance centre to join the stars. “They've done a fantastic job,” the new boss says. “They’ve built us a new home in just six weeks.”
13.30: Training begins. Klinsmann orders the players through a workout in the gym designed to test coordination, stability, and flexibility. The players perform various exercises for about 80 minutes, during which performance data is collected. “This way we can see where someone has deficits, which is normal after holidays. We use this information to control the individual level of training; we don't want to overburden any of our players.“
15.00: Warm-up in preparation for the first session on the pitch.
15.30: Klinsmann steps out onto the freshly-mown training ground with his coaching staff and his team. Thousands of fans are present to watch the first practice session. The players have the ball at their feet during the first 75 minutes. “The ball will be integrated into most of our training programmes, even the fitness and coordination exercises,” Klinsmann announces.
18.50: Klinsmann is at Munich airport with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Uli Hoeneß and Karl Hopfner, where they greet Bayern’s newly-crowned Euro 2008 runners-up (Klose, Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Jansen) in person.
Later: Klinsmann meets up with his coaching staff for a communal dinner and to analyse his first day of training in detail. “We'll be keeping an exact account of every day,” he reveals, “so that in future we know exactly what happened a week or a month ago and can draw conclusions from it.” Finally Klinsmann returns to his hotel. The next working day is just around the corner.
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