Markus Weinzierl: 'Talent development remains our goal'

Markus Weinzierl, director of sport at the FC Bayern Campus, looks back on a succesful first half of the season. In an interview with fcbayern.com, he discusses the reserve team's ambitions in the Regionalliga as well as the new DFB Youth League, and gives insights into the Campus' strategic direction.

Interview with Markus Weinzierl

Markus Weinzierl, the year 2024 is drawing to a close – time to review. From a sporting point of view, how has it turned out for the FC Bayern Campus?
Markus Weinzierl: "I'd like to limit it to the time since I've been working here, i.e. the first half of the current season. And it's turned out very positively. The reserves go into the winter break in second place in the table after a strong first half of the season, close behind leaders 1. FC Schweinfurt. Our U19s are comfortably top of the Youth League without defeat and our U17s have even won all 14 of their games this season! We're very pleased with how things have gone on the pitch so far."

The U19s under Peter Gaydarov have also been doing well in Europe. How significant is it for the Campus to have reached the knockout stages of the Youth League again?
"Very! We're sure that our talents can learn a lot and gain valuable experiences on this international stage against top academies from abroad. We only had good opponents in the first stage and are very pleased we've been able to stay in this competition over the winter. We reached the quarter-finals for the first time last season. The target of taking part in the final four for the first time is therefore still open. Our ambitions in this competition are big, too."

A follow-up question on the reserves. You deliberately avoided setting the target of promotion to the 3. Liga before the season, even though the champions will go straight up this time. Has anything changed?
"Our main goal was and still is developing players and gradually introducing them to men's and professional football. As an example of that, I'd like to name Adam Aznou, who has made his debut in the Bundesliga, in the Champions League and even in the Moroccan senior national team in recent weeks. He was the captian of our Youth League team in five out of the six matches. Many of his team-mates have also made great progress, though. If they carry on like this, I certainly think we'll have a say in the promotion race. In general, all teams at FC Bayern should want to win every game. That also goes for our very young reserve team, of course. However, we will always give more weight to personal development in individual cases, which means that if we think a player is ready to take the step up to a higher league during the winter break, we will try to make that happen."

The U17s and U19s will be playing matches across the whole country for the first time in the second half of the season. What challenges do you see coming the boys' way there?
"From a sporting perspective, it's very appealing. That was the point of the reforms, instead of playing against pretty much the same teams with the same players every year. Now we're coming up against top teams from all over Germany and will be tested in new ways. In terms of time, it means longer journeys, if the opponents are Werder Bremen rather than Nürnberg or Schalke rather than Stuttgart. But our educational team is in close contact with the schools there so that the affected players can catch up on their learning. I personally am very happy about the new league structure and I'm very excited to see how our two teams will continue to perform."

You've been in the job for around five months now as the successor to Halil Altintop. What's your personal review so far?
"Very good! I've known Halil for many years, as my player at Augsburg and even as my assistant coach once at Stuttgart. He made the introduction very easy for me – but not just him. At this point I must thank the management again for their trust in offering me this important position at the Campus. The first few weeks were intensive with a lot of new processes and new colleagues. Now I'm fully up to speed, though, and will do everything I can to continue the very successful promotion of talent on Campus. Forty per cent of our graduates end up in professional football, which is an outstanding figure. Four players who trained at the Campus are regularly in the first-team squad: Jamal Musiala, Aleks Pavlović, Josip Stanisić and Ari Ibrahimović. And we'll work even more intensively, individually and extensively at the Campus to increase these numbers in the future."

How does the Weinzierl family celebrate Christmas?
"Like most others, surrounded by family. We'll also visit our son abroad this year."