Created on 05-01-2013 at 00:00 AM
When Matthias Sammer stunned Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in December with the news he would be travelling to the Doha training camp, the 17-year-old could hardly believe his luck. The young Dane had taken part in a couple of first-team training sessions in the autumn, but Sammer's news was still a bombshell. “I immediately told my friends, but they laughed and said: ‘Oh come off it, little Pete!’" he grinned.
However, the youngster who only joined Munich from Brondby in early 2012 duly took his place alongside the stars on the plane to Qatar last Wednesday, where he was joined by fellow juniors Patrick Weihrauch, Daniel Wein and keeper Leopold Zingerle. Pierre-Emile and the three 18-year-olds all play important roles in Mehmet Scholl’s fourth division FCB reserves. Hojbjerg and Wein were in fact part of the squad for the summer training camp in northern Italy, but a host of the club’s Euro 2012 players were absent and a number of juniors were there to make up the numbers.