Heynckes bowled over by Doha stay

Jupp Heynckes has coached an array of top-class clubs, Real Madrid, Benfica, Leverkusen and Bayern to name but a few. He started out with home-town club Mönchengladbach back in 1979, but summing up FCB's week in Doha some 30 years later, the 66-year-old came out with a remarkable statement: “In my long career, I've never held such an outstanding training camp as we've had here."

The boss praised the “exceptionally good" standard of the training sessions, practice pitches, climate and hotel. “Everything is just right here," he continued, “we've trained exhaustively and at a very high level." Director of sport Christian Nerlinger was equally impressed: “There couldn't have been better conditions for a winter training camp. All the players appear extremely fit."