As part of the club’s official start-of-season open day on Sunday, Bayern and the Fitness First Winter Stars laid on goals galore and a handful of sublime moments for the 28,000 crowd at the Allianz Arena. The 20 minutes each way benefit match ended 11-1 to the pros, but the result was of little if any importance on a fun afternoon for the FCB family.
Not 24 hours after watching his men win the altogether more serious Supercup, Louis van Gaal fielded all the players who were not in the starting line-up in Augsburg. Franck Ribéry enjoyed a gentle first run-out of the season after groin surgery, with the side also including Toni Kroos and Edson Braafheid after loan spells away from Munich, and World Cup participants Mark van Bommel, Mario Gomez and Jörg Butt.
29 Winter Stars v 11 FCB pros
Kroos hit the post on five minutes, before Gomez put the ball in the net for the first time six minutes later. The striker topped the scoresheet by the end with four goals, followed by José Sosa (3), Ribéry (2) and Kroos (2). The battling Winter Stars, whose numbers had swollen to a remarkable 29 players by the closing minutes, earned huge cheers when Wojtek Czyz netted a consolation effort in stoppage time.
The Winter Stars, spearheaded by bobsled legend Georg Hackl and also including Alpine ace Felix Neureuther, bobsled Olympic champion Felix Loch and former world-class ski-jumper Jens Weißflog, boasted numerous Olympic and world championship medal winners among their number. A footballing flavour was added by former FCB stalwarts Lothar Matthäus, Hans Pflügler and Harald Cerny. Proceeds from the game will go to Munich’s 2018 Winter Olympics bid.
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