Whether in the dressing room, on the training ground or even inside the team huddle, the FC Bayern Campus Stories take you up close as we followed the FC Bayern reserves and U19s for a whole season. The insight is as spectacular as it is authentic.
It’s one of those moments in which the viewer feels very close. Gabriel Vidovic sitting topless next to his teammate Nemanja Motika in the dressing room on a crate, mobile phone in hand, the 3-0 victory over the Augsburg reserves at the start of the Regionalliga season on his mind. “Further up, further up,” he says, extending his index finger in the air and laughing.
With the FC Bayern Campus Stories you are right in the middle of it. You get insight not only from the corridor outside the dressing room but also from the dressing room itself, during team meetings, tactics training, from the bus, hotel room or training camp, even from the team huddles.
We accompanied the FC Bayern reserves and U19s for a whole season. Now the series starts with two of a total of six episodes. The joy, the hope, the jubilation, the desire for success and what constitutes real team spirit and Mia san Mia are shown in a uniquely authentic way.
“The goal must be to not only get the players to the verge of the first team but – similar to what happened a few years ago with Thomas Müller, David Alaba, Bastian Schweinsteiger – to make them absolute key players and top performers at FC Bayern,” says Jochen Sauer, head of the FC Bayern Campus. With this documentary, viewers now get an idea of how this can work.
The Campus series shows situations that are not usually seen in the day-to-day business of football.
That mentality counts as well as sporting quality is expressed by reserves coach Martin Demichelis when he emphasises: “If you have good players, you still don't have a good team. You need a good spirit. Playing well is easy. But to have that greed, that personality, to win every game, that’s hard.” Always in focus are the team idea, togetherness, tactics.
The profile of the Argentinean coach, who was a four-time Bundesliga winner with FCB, also comes into sharper focus in the FC Bayern Campus Stories. How does he work? What’s his approach like? What experience does he bring to the table?
The group must live - that is the principle that U19s coach Danny Galm follows. He meticulously prepares for every opponent, but also places great emphasis on communication with the players. During his tactical lectures, when he sets up his team, the viewer sits in the front row due to the proximity of the camera. This makes moments that are already emotional even more intense. When the players cry with Rares Canea after his second serious injury, it’s almost impossible to hold back one’s own tears. And there's a real aha moment when Galm reveals the most important component of his coaching job.
If you have good players, you still don't have a good team. You need a good spirit.
Martin Demichelis, FC Bayern reserves coach
No matter where the boys are, you’re there with the FC Bayern Campus Stories. In the tunnel, evenings in training camps, at spontaneous dance interludes. We show the interesting conversations after training, the debriefs at the tactics board and also a visit to the Campus by Jamal Musiala and Franck Ribery.
Neither the reserves nor the U19s play predominantly in sold-out stadiums, and you can literally smell the bratwurst and the sweat on their away trips. The first two episodes give a taste of what’s to come in the next four stories. The path to becoming a professional is not an easy one, but rather “hard work”, as Galm puts it in one of his speeches. It is a constant process of development, of moving on, of keeping at it.
We’ll show you the way with the FC Bayern Campus Stories.
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