Since 2023, FC Bayern has been running the FC Bayern Football School Taicang - a youth football project in cooperation with a local middle school, where one boys‘ and one girls’ team train every day with FC Bayern coaches in Taicang, near Shanghai. The players are immersed in the principles and methods of the FC Bayern Campus during the training sessions, which are integrated into the school day. In this way, sporting development at a high level can be promoted alongside the enormously important academic development.
From building site to elite facility
Following the start of the cooperation, a new synthetic turf from POLYTAN was installed last year. In addition, a multi-storey functional building was erected next to the synthetic pitch to provide changing facilities for the teams as well as offices and conference rooms for the preparation and follow-up of the teams' organisational and sporting activities.
Sports promotion throughout the region
In addition to the active middle school teams, FC Bayern also constantly seeks to find ways to promote the sporting development of young people in the Taicang region. A prime example of this was their involvement in a nearby elementary school, where regular training sessions and friendlies were organised. This initiative bore fruit: many talented children from the elementary school team have since transferred to the middle school and are now an integral part of the FC Bayern Football School Taicang.
Successful sporting record
In addition to the infrastructural progress made as part of the project, the school is now also competing at a top level in sporting terms. Following some initial challenges, the FC Bayern Football School team recently won the Taicang Mayor Cup for the second time in a row, making them the best school side in the city. The team also achieved a good fifth-place finish at the Suzhou Mayor Cup, improving on their performance compared to the previous year. Coupled with this, there have regularly been special highlights, such as a 6-2 victory in a friendly match at the Kunshan Olympic Sports Centre, which seats 45,000 spectators.
In the future, we will continue to work hard to provide players with the best possible education and sports training. The football school therefore forms an important basic component of the FC Bayern Pathway to show talented players in China a possible route into professional football.
Around 70 members recently completed their German Sports Badge at the FC Bayern Campus:
Topics of this article