Germany’s Bayern Backbone

09 Nov Germany’s Bayern Backbone

IRELAND will field a new-look/young side when they take on Germany tonight at the Aviva Stadium in a crunch World Cup qualifier. It will be a fascinating learning curve for the Boys in Green’s newest generation against a nation that has reinvented its own image thanks to huge strides in their youth development policy. In particular, Champions League runners up last season Bayern Munich are massive contributors to their national side, so we thought we’d take a closer look…

FC Bayern Munchen’s academy and training ground is situated in a leafy suburb in an affluent part of Munich,on Säbener Straße.
It is the nucleus of all the activity of the club as it hosts the fan centre, club offices, professional training quarters and the youth academy. It is the focal point for the supporters and the commercial and football work done by the club.
FC Bayern Munchen was a pioneer in developing grassroots players, and honing in on the club’s traditional values with the player so they feel part of the Bayern Munchen Family. The cornerstone of the Fc Bayern Muchen philosophy is to integrate mental and physical strength into players.



The attitude may seem quite aggressive, but Bayern Munchen aspire to have the best academy in Germany and beyond its borders.

The academy and the first team is separated, the first team head coach (Jupp Heynckes, left) has no influence on the running of the academy. The players within the academy must be produced to be able to play at the highest level ( Champions League), while continuing to demonstrate the club’s identity and way of life.
Bayern Munchen believe home-grown players will associate more fully with the club than outside players, they understand the true meaning and demands of playing for such a successful and illustrious club. Education is a huge factor of the club, if a players is not performing in the classroom he is not allowed perform on the pitch.
From the beginning of the 2011/2012 season 11 youth teams including the second team have been playing in the south regional district. The youth teams are coached by 26 trainers from the Fc Bayern Junior Team.
The Fc Bayern youth teams all follow a single system which can be simplified as a 4-4-2 formation. Players are separated by their year of birth but, players showing exceptional technical abilities and talent can be moved to a higher age group to develop and test them.



This makes even greater demand on them physically and psychologically, it helps the trainers separates the stronger players who could have the ability to make at the highest level at Bayern Munich and the weaker less able players who won’t make it up to the high demands of the club. Players must be able to commute easily to training; this is seen as a test of strength and desire.
FC Bayern Munchen play an efficient style of football, which is characterised by discipline. Coaches from Fc Bayern Munchen Youth teams teach players to play with short passes and keep the ball away from the opponent whenever possible.



Players have very specific roles in the team and rarely improvise. For coaches it’s essential they develop the Fc Bayern spirit and never say die attitude. Showing full commitment to the team and the meaning of the club; not only in their glory moment but their more difficult moments to.
As Karl Heinz Rummeinge said, the club’s chairman, “Bayern will always bring ‘stars’ from other clubs but we also want players coming from our Youth Academy, because they fully identify with our club.”
You can see today in the Fc Bayern first team squad the values of their Academy, as they boast some of the world’s best players who all began in the Youth Academy and showed the right amount of desire to fulfil the Fc Bayern philosophy.

These players include Bastian Schweinstieger (left), Phillip Lahm (the current club captain), Holger Badstuber, Thomas Muller, David Alaba and Toni Kroos.
The academy rivals the most illustrious academy of our time, Barcelona, as they continue to produce huge numbers of quality players; some who can’t fit into the first team such as current National centre back Mats Hummels. The Academy players carry on what they have been thought in the youth teams and implement it at the highest level. They play the same style of football, controlled, disciplined football controlling the tempo and possession of the game.



There is no better example of this then the Champions League Semi-Final, where Bayern Munchen played Real Madrid (left) off the park in both legs of the tie dominating the game and keeping Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of the Galacticos at bay for the majority of the tie.
The future looks bright for Bayern Munich as another young batch of exciting stars are rising from the Academy led by Emre Can, the all action midfielder. Fc Bayern Munchen have dominated in Home and European tournaments and look like they will continue to do so.