Dubai as launch pad for trophy pursuit

Twist, turn and avert your gaze as you will, there’s no escaping Burj Dubai. The vast glass and steel edifice soars more than 800 metres into the blue skies above the Persian Gulf. The tower, easily the tallest building in the world, is the most astonishing structure among all of Dubai’s remarkable architecture. It also perfectly symbolises Bayern’s goals, as the Bavarian club aim to ride high above all their rivals in the coming year.

“We want to carry on where we left off,” said Holger Badstuber on Monday, the first full day of the FCB training camp in the Gulf emirate, and also the day when Burj Dubai officially opens. “We intend to go on the attack, especially in the Bundesliga, although we want to go as far as we can in the other competitions too.”