International visitor group at FC Bayern
A group of ten Chinese fans, selected by PPTV (Bundesliga rights holders in China), Adidas and Germany's record champions were guests in Munich for the two home games against Fortuna Düsseldorf and Benfica.
The group watched both games at the Allianz Arena and an open training session for the first team at Säbener Straße and the FC Bayern Campus. Under the guidance of the international youth coaches at FCB, they were able to demonstrate their abilities on the ball at a training session set up especially for them. One particular highlight was, in addition to meeting with Jerome Boateng and the Bayern legend Giovane Elber at the Champions League game, a meeting with our current U17 coach Miroslav Klose who fielded questions on all issues concerning the youth setup at the German champions.
In November, for the home game against Fortuna Düsseldorf, an international fan group visited with participants from Chile, Poland and the USA selected in the #beprepared DFL draw and by the local Bundesliga broadcaster.
Klassiker broadcast worldwide
A lot of Bayern fans across the globe were engrossed by the game against Borussia Dortmund. Fan clubs in the USA, Colombia, China, Thailand, India, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam (to name just a few) organised big screen events or visited public Watch Parties with their members to watch the game live with their fingers crossed. As part of the Bundesliga Experience in Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg, over 500 fans in each venue watched the broadcast of the big match.
FC Bayern coaches in Thailand / SPIA Awards Bangkok
At the start of November, two FCB international coaches, Klaus Augenthaler and Thomas Döllner, travelled to Thailand to run sessions for Thai sports teachers and coaches. Training coaches is an important component of the countrywide schools campaign ‘FC Bayern 12 Level Course’. To date, over 400 local sports teachers and coaches have been trained. Augenthaler also ran training sessions for the Thai children in and around Bangkok.
The international tournament 'FC Bayern Youth Cup’ has been named as the best sport youth development programme in Thailand. This great award was received by the German record champions at this years SPIA Asia Summit – one of the biggest sports business events in Asia – in Bangkok (19 – 20.11). Bayern legend Augenthaler accepted the award on behalf of the club. The championship shield and mascot Berni were also at the event.
GPS Coach training in Munich
From 24 to 30 November, 15 coaches from FC Bayern's official youth football partner Global Premium Soccer (GPS) were guests in Munich. Under the direction of Sebastian Dremmler, head coach of the international programme, the sustainable ongoing coaching by the GPS coaches, based on the model of FC Bayern, was promoted during the visit. In addition to daily seminars and meetings, there were also visits to the youth training sessions and games at the FC Bayern Campus.
Along with the GPS coaches, three talented male players and two female players from America travelled to the Bavarian capital to take part in training sessions with youth teams of the German record champions. That was rounded off in style with a meet and greet with head coach Niko Kovac at Säbener Straße.
FC Bayern Youth Cup 2019 starts
The FC Bayern Youth Cup is now in its eighth year. Qualification for the annual international youth football tournament started in India as the first country. In the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, boys aged 14–16 had the opportunity to qualify for the Indian final with their school teams. Srinagar (1 – 2 December) and Chennai (January 2019) other venues for further qualifiers before the big national final in Delhi on two and three February. Last year, the Indian team ended up in seventh place at the world final in Munich.
Since last Friday, boys born in 2003 and 2004 in Nigeria were able to register for the FC Bayern Youth Cup 2019. The qualifying tournaments take place between 18 and 27 January in Lagos and Abuja. The eight best teams qualify for the national final in Abuja on 2 and 3 February.