UEFA COACHES CIRCLE EXTRANET CASE STUDY No. 1: DEVELOPING ELITE YOUNG PLAYERS AT FC BAYERN MUNICH Lessons of good practice from FC Bayern Munich you will learn in this Case Study 1. Talent: • How Bayern Munich intend to keep the ‘meat’ of their team German – indeed Bavarian if they can- to foster their family culture and meet UEFA Champions League Regulations • Bridging the gap between youth and first team football 2. Time • Innovative partnership development with local schools in Munich to provide up to 8 practise and small sided games sessions for players 10-16 years of age. • From 16-19 the players have 6 formal training sessions per week 3. Teachers • Increasing the number of coaches to 10 fulltime and 11 part-time for 11 teams. • Increasing individual coaching time and recruiting young coaches who are encouraged to join in with youngsters Now read on !!………………………………………………. 1 1. PHILOSOPHY It may a surprise for many coaches to learn that in the 1960’s Bayern were in not in the top German League, yet their neighbours -1860 Munich were! The rise of Bayern to one of the top clubs of the world has been based on development of a family culture at the club and phenomenal stability and continuity. No-one reflects this attitude more than Werner Kern the Head of Junior Teams at FC Bayern Munich Werner’s background includes the following aspects: Date of birth: 23.02.46 Studied profession: school teacher and football coach 1972 player and player-manager at various amateur clubs; student 1972 – 1976 FC Bayern Munich assistant trainer under Udo Lattek and Dettmar Cramer and FC Bayern Amateurs trainer 1976 – 1977 Manager of Wormatia Worms (promotion to the second Bundesliga division) 1977 – 1979 Manager of 1. FC Nuremberg (promotion to the first Bundesliga division) 1979 - 1981 Manager of Eintracht Trier (2nd Bundesliga division) 1981 – 1983 Manager of SSV Ulm 46 2 1983 - 1998 International football promotional manager at adidas- Salomon AG Since 1.8.98 head of junior teams at FC Bayern Munich Bayern Munich offer and encourage the players to consider the following traits : Ownership – discipline – respect – lifestyle – character. Marketing gurus refer to qualities of a brand or the emotional traits that differentiate one brand from another. The Brand that is FC Bayern Munich is typified by every question that Werner answers in the way that he uses anecdotes to illustrate every point. The anecdotes in themselves display these traits and the feeling that Bayern Munich has for its staff and players as well as the how this is reciprocated. The club and it staff have a clear passion and ‘obsession’ to patiently strive for quality and sustained improvement The social element is the bedrock of the ‘whole child development’ concept with standards maintained throughout the Club. This club experience has a real family feel to all areas and training sessions for all teams (except the last one before a match for the first team) is open to the public with often up to 5,000 people respectively watching the training of all teams. 2. OBJECTIVES Bayern Munich re-organized its youth section in 1995 and established the Junior Squad. Werner Kern was appointed in 1998 Werner spells out the objectives for the Junior Team Department to be as follows: • Number of players for the Bayern 1st.l team. • Market value of the players. • Positive report of media, contributing to the positive image of the club. • Level of co-operations and the mutual respect with local football. Werner emphasizes that whilst non-German players are recruited the club’s policy is to ensure the ‘meat’ of the team is German and indeed preferably from Bavaria–now re-enforced by the impending UEFA regulations for 3 The current first team has a number who have developed through the junior teams –Hargreaves, Lahm, Rensing, Guerro, Ottl & Schweinsteiger In addition Sammy Kouffour a graduate of the Youth House was transferred last season to AS Roma as were two Bayern graduates to Hamburg and two to Stuggart BAYERN MUNICH SQUAD FOR 2005-6 German: 9 French: 3 Brasilian: 2 Peruvian: 2 Canadian/English: 1 Argentinean: 1 Paraguay: 1 Bosnian: 1 Holland: 1 Iran: 1 • 1 Oliver Kahn • 20 Hasan Salihamidžić • 2 Willy Sagnol • 21 Philipp Lahm • 3 Lucio • 22 Michael Rensing • 6 Martin Gaston • 23 Owen Hargreaves Demichelis • 24 Roque Santa Cruz • 7 Mehmet Scholl • 25 Valérien Ismaël • 8 Ali Karimi • 26 Sebastian Deisler • 10 Roy Makaay • 31 Bastian • 11 Zé Roberto Schweinsteiger • 13 Michael Ballack • 33 José Paolo Guerrero • 14 Claudio Pizarro • 39 Andreas Ottl • 16 Jens Jeremies • 69 Bixente Lizarazu • 18 Andreas Görlitz To obtain more career details from www.Wikipedia.com of the players please click on to their names for the respective hyperlinks 4 3. STRUCTURE Werner reports formally to the Club Deputy Chairman, Uli Hoeness, but is daily contact –on the same site- as all the coaches from the Bayern 1st. team Werner is ultimately responsible for all teams below the first team. He chairs a formal staff meeting every Monday morning with all the professional fulltime coaches. 4. FACILITIES Sabener Strasse – The training facility In a leafy suburb of Munich, the training ground incorporates four grass pitches, one of which is equipped with under soil heating, an artificial grass pitch and a multi-functional sports hall. The senior players’ quarters which opened in 1990 offers a generously proportioned dressing room, a massage room, a doctor’s surgery, a relaxation bath, a whirlpool, a state of the art rehabilitation centre and a conference room with screening facilities for video analysis. There is, however, no dedicated Indoor Area for the youngsters to use in the winter months: there is a new generation synthetic pitch which accommodates the players when the grass pitches are unusable One visible component of the commitment to player development is the club’s Youth House which houses up to 13 young players in 13 single rooms inside the club grounds. The 13 boys aged 16 to 18 includes players from Europe, Africa and South America. All have single rooms and are looked after by a ‘House Mother ‘who lives in. The boys have lounges, games rooms: they are provided with breakfast and lunch but are expected to cook themselves one meal a day. The maintenance of high levels of discipline is expected from players in the Youth House. The hostel has links for education on site and is supported by 11 teachers. Teaching is structured within a timetable which fits into the club football training programme. Education is high priority and if players want to be at Bayern Munich they have to comply and they do. 5 5. TALENT IDENTIFICATION Bayern scout players in the following ways: • Scouting local football in Munich and Bavaria • Liaison with the TEN Partner clubs that Bayern now have throughout Bavaria: if players are good enough they will be invited to enter the Youth House from these clubs when the player is 15 or 16 years of age • Open Days at the club • By keeping a constant view of the 390 German Federation Talent Centres ,30 of which that operate in Bavaria on the Monday night of every week • Scouting across Germany for talented young players • Global Scouting In the main Bayern prefer to invite the player to train with them rather than only watch them playing for other teams Bayern signed up to and support the ‘Gentleman’s agreement’ which commits German clubs to a code of conduct not to poach the young players of other German clubs. In subscribing to this code of conduct Bayern agree to pay compensation at the market rate –with scaled payments for subsequent appearances in the 1st.team-for young players signed from other clubs. Werner emphasised an important point that is in the best interests of ‘big ‘clubs to assist in the player development of ALL CLUBS in that country in order to meet UEFA Champions League Regulations. If Bayern develop players that go to other clubs in Germany but can also legitimately sign the products of other clubs’ youth programmes in Germany then both Bayern meet UEFA regulations and Germany develops more quality players. This is because UEFA regulations will recognise a player developed in an Academy of a club in the same country. It is therefore not in the best interests of a ‘big’ club that they have the monopoly of the best development system in that country In some cases Bayern may agree to sign a young player but leave him at that club until he is 16 years of age and able then to come to Munich to enter the Youth Hostel Werner outlines a simple philosophy for the type of player Bayern are looking for when he says they look for players who ‘Will seek to provide solutions ‘when their team is in possession 6 There is no definite age when Bayern players sign full ‘Bundeslegia’ professional contracts: this –in the words of Werner- will be determined when the player’s development warrants it. The club are therefore not put under pressure by themselves to offer contract when a player reaches a certain age. (A recent debutant for the first team for example Andreas Ottl only signed his first ‘Bundeslegia’ contract when he was 20 years of age) Existing regulations require each of Bayern’s teams below the first team to include in their squad 12 players who are eligible to be selected for the German National Team. Furthermore work permits are now no longer provided for players from outside the EU unless they are registered exclusively for the 1st. team in the Bundeslegia In addition the Bayern’s Reserve team play in the German 3rd Division (South) and a regulation of this league is that Reserve Team like Bayern must only have 3 over 23’s in their squad 6.