Arjen Robben is going into his tenth season at Bayern München. The Dutchman has experienced great successes and countless training sessions with the record champions, but his hunger for success and desire to improve every day have not diminished. As the training camp on Tegernsee came to a close on Thursday, the winger trained fully and is buzzing as ever for the new season.
“I’m pleased that I’ve not missed a minute of training yet – that’s good. My ambition never goes away,” said the 34-year-old after the final session in Rottach-Egern. It’s been eight days of hard work for Robben and his teammates. Niko Kovac has asked a lot of his players, but Robben welcomes the demanding pre-season that the new Bayern coach has put together. “You have to be fit, physically and mentally, then you can work on tactics and focus on particular things,” explained the 2010 World Cup runner-up, who’s still willing to graft in every training session despite his advancing years. “If you have the desire, then you can still offer a lot of quality. Mentality is the most important thing in football.”
Robben has to wait another three days before he can show his mental strength on the pitch again. Bayern take on Eintracht Frankfurt in the Supercup on Sunday (20:30 CEST) in their first competitive fixture of the 2018/19 season, and the Dutchman is fired up for the match – not only because of the defeat to the Hessians in Berlin in May. “We lost the cup final so we’ll do everything to win this one. Every trophy counts; we want to come away with this one.”
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