At last, the story continues! The new episodes 3 and 4 of FC Bayern Campus Stories are online as of now!
Whether on the way to Barcelona for the Youth League, in the tunnel at the Grünwalder Stadion or at a team dinner before a big game: with the FC Bayern Campus Stories, you get to know the German record champions’ youth teams from a completely new perspective and gain insights that would otherwise remain hidden. With the support of our partner Allianz, we followed and got up close to the Bayern players of tomorrow on their journey to professional football.
Thomas Müller, Serge Gnabry & Co. are also delighted with the new episodes of the Campus series:
One team - one goal
The tension, the thrill, but also the unconditional will to win is clearly visible in the faces of Johannes Schenk, Grant-Leon Ranos and Lucas Copado. Only a few minutes left until kick-off. Scenes like the one before the cup clash against Hertha BSC make it clear what great tension goes hand in hand with great ambitions, even in youth football. Not only the team, but also the coaches and support staff are absolutely focused on the match, as this is a fundamental component in the development of the talents.
Over the course of the new episodes of FC Bayern Campus Stories, the responsibilities of the "team behind the team" therefore also come increasingly to the fore. With what determination, meticulousness and discipline do Martín Demichelis, Danny Galm and Co work on the further development of their teams? How do they prepare their teams for the next tasks? And how do they manage to keep the boys in good spirits at all times and create a good team spirit in the squad? The answers to all these questions are now available in the two new episodes of FC Bayern Campus Stories.
We accompanied the FC Bayern reserves and U19s over the course of a year on their journey to professional football. Great victories as well as disappointing defeats are presented to the viewer from an unadulterated perspective, which illustrates in a unique way how difficult the path to professional football is.
Together at the top
"We want to win everything as FC Bayern. We try to train the boys as winners and want them to really go to their maximum all the time," says Danny Galm, head coach of the U19s. With FC Bayern Campus Stories, the viewer is shown how the young hopefuls of the German record champions train and are trained on a daily basis. With insights from the training ground, but also from the talks before and after the games, the series explains how the coaches succeed in passing on the "Mia san mia" mentality to the young talents. On the way to the top, not only technical, tactical and physical elements are the focus of the training, but the players are also mentally prepared for the professional game.
After all, the road to professional football is anything but straightforward, but is characterised at numerous moments by almost insurmountable hurdles and bitter defeats. Tom Starke, who works on Campus as goalkeeping coordinator and coach for the U19s, knows how important these negative experiences can be. "It is important to experience that things don't only go steeply upwards, but that a career can also always have a downward corner. Our success is not only defined by championships, but above all by the development of the boys," says the former Bayern keeper. The Munich youngsters gain this kind of experience, for example, in the UEFA Youth League, which was a challenging task for Galm's side.
Team spirit and togetherness make the difference
In addition to the work and progress of the young players, the two new Stories also focus on the mentality and cohesion of the two teams. It is not only the quality of a team that contributes to its success, but also its inner unity. Former Bundesliga keeper Jaroslav Drobný, who coaches the reserves’ goalkeepers, knows this and is convinced of the team's inner unity: "We are like a family here," says the former Czech international, who was very well received by the coaching team after his move to FC Bayern.
„Everyone’s very nice and helps each other. It’s very easy working with the people here. We’re like a family here.”
Jaroslav Drobný, FC Bayern reserves goalkeeper coach
This balanced team structure, but also the experience of the coaching team, always benefits the professionals of tomorrow in the daily training sessions as well as in match preparation. This is also emphasised by Gabriel Vidović, who benefited greatly from the expertise of his head coach Martín Demichelis: "He is a very good coach and a very good person. He was very important for my personal development and I owe him a lot," said the Croatian U21 international, who is currently on loan at Vitesse Arnhem. The same is true of Nemanja Motika (currently with Red Star Belgrade), who has learned a lot from the aggressiveness of the Argentinian 2014 World Cup runner-up.
The expertise and experience of coaches like Demichelis, who has since taken over as head coach of top Argentinian club and his boyhood club River Plate, represents a key factor in the development of the prospective pros. Because only through experience, desire and the necessary courage can the path to the top work out. In the two new episodes of FC Bayern Campus Stories, you can see what that path looks like.
📱 More information on FC Bayern Campus Stories:
One-off insights into the work of Demichelis, who's now working in South America, can be found in the Campus series.
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