sign in sign up
<<
Home , Andreas Ottl, Bixente Lizarazu, Bundesliga, Claudio Pizarro, Dettmar Cramer, FC Bayern Munich

UEFA COACHES CIRCLE EXTRANET

CASE STUDY No. 1: DEVELOPING ELITE YOUNG PLAYERS AT FC BAYERN

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 and and FC Bayern Amateurs trainer

1976 – 1977 Manager of (promotion to the second division)

1977 – 1979 Manager of 1. FC (promotion to the first Bundesliga division)

1979 - 1981 Manager of Eintracht Trier (2nd Bundesliga division)

1981 – 1983 Manager of SSV 46

2 1983 - 1998 International football promotional manager at - 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 –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 to AS Roma as were two Bayern graduates to 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 • 20 Hasan Salihamidžić • 2 • 21 • 3 Lucio • 22 • 6 Martin Gaston • 23 Demichelis • 24 • 7 • 25 • 8 • 26

• 10 • 31 Bastian • 11 Zé Roberto Schweinsteiger • 13 • 33 José • 14 • 39 • 16 • 69 • 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 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 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. DEVELOPMENT

A key development for Bayern has been the co-operation with 3 Partner Schools in Munich where Bayern have a group of 15 players in each year group from 8 to 16 years of age. The Schools are Specialist Sports Schools where and physical education is core to the school’s overall curriculum.

This allows Bayern Coaches to work IN CURRICULUM TIME FOR AN ADDITIONAL ONE HOUR PER DAY: this is in addition to the three training sessions they have at the club after school each week. The sessions in the school are not formal coaching as such and aim to re-crate ‘street soccer’ by providing an hour a day of small sided games

As part of the sessions at the club all the young players will be provided with at least one session per week on general co-ordination work without the ball

On average each age group squad has a turnover of between 3 - 4 players each year.

Players until the 19 years of age are in full-time education but still undertake 6 separate training sessions per week.

The move to the 1st. team from the junior teams which appears to be a problem for many big club Academies is managed according to Werner as a result of effective communication and monitoring of players within the club between junior tram and first team coaches. Rarely are players loaned out to other Bundeslegia clubs but instead nurtured within the fixture lists of the 2nd team and 1st. team. As

7 the second team plays in the 3rd. division, and competes in the German Cup every year there is no shortage of competitive football for the second team.

The First team squad members very rarely play for the Second team and there are no ‘reserve’ fixtures for the first team squad members. For them it is 1st team football or no football!

7. STAFF

In the past three years Werner has increased the number of fulltime staff and appointed a Co-ordinator of the 8-15 year olds. There are now 10 fulltime coaches working with players below the first team assisted by 11 part-time coaches Werner still believes in appointing young coaches to work with the young players and encourages the coaches to join in the practices with the young players. The policy is that the coach remains as age group caches and do not advance with their players: the club want the coaches to have a genuine desire and joy of working with young players and to understand as much about young people as they do about football.

Not unsurprisingly there is a large element of stability and continuity evident amongst the Bayern staff, many of whom have been for many years.

8. TECHNICAL PROGRAMME

There is a defined Bayern Technical Programme developed by all the Bayern Coaches covering the required outcomes expected of young Bayern players and the coaches responsible for developing the players.

All coaches work to this Technical Programme

• ‘Games as the Teacher’ is the Club approach at young ages, 8-11

• At 11 years + the ‘Inductive Method’ is used – explained as; explore/create/encourage/correct - all match orientated.

All coaches compile the coaching session details on an agreed strategy. The age group coach; - • registers players attendance • compiles weekly coaching plan • produces player details and team reports weekly

8 Each coach stays with their age team in order to become a specialist within the age group. Coaches are encouraged to develop players and prepare teams. Coaches work inside the sessions at the young ages 8 - 11 with all players actively involved.

Reports are kept for each training session and player reports for each game. The player has an individual discussion with his coach regarding his progress twice a year.

Greater emphasis is now being placed on speed work as the boys reach and pass through puberty. The local university assists the club in this respect

There are no specialist psychologists but there are of course specialist medical staff and medical screening systems in place.

9. GAMES PROGRAMME The games programme for the Teams fewer than 17 and below involve playing teams one year older than the Bayern Team-except for the German Youth Cups. Teams do not play 11v11 until 12 years of age and the team formation emphasise 3-4-3 for younger players to challenge the 3 defenders to cope with 3 attackers without the ‘extra’ defender. 4-3-3 is introduced from 14/15 years of age and then is the pattern of play for all Junior Teams

10. A TYPICAL WEEK at the Club(excluding work in the schools and the partner clubs)

Number MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY of Players 12 > U8 – U8 – 3.00 no training no training U8 – 3.00 - 4.30 - 4.30 3.00 - 4.30 12 > U9 – no training U9 – 4.00 - no training U9 – 4.00 - 5.30 5.30 4.00 - 5.30

9 12 > U10 – U8 – 4.00 U9 – 4.00 - U12 – 4.45 - U8 – 4.00 - 5.30 - 5.30 5.30 6.15 3.00 - 4.30 12 > U11 – U14 – 5.30 U10 – 4.30 - U13 – 5.30 - U9 – 5.00 - 6.30 - 7.00 6.00 7.00 3.30 - 5.00 17 > U12 – U15 – 5.30 U11 – 5.30 - U14 – 5.30 - U10 – 4.45 - 6.15 - 7.00 7.00 7.00 4.00 - 5.30 18 > U13 – BT – 3.00 - U12 – 5.30 - U15 – 5.30 - U11 – 4.45 - 6.15 5.30 7.00 7.00 3.30 - 5.00 19 > U14 – no LT – 2.00 - U13 – 5.00 - BT – 3.00 – U15 – training 3.45 6.30 4.30 4.00 - 4.30 18 > U15 – U16 – 5.30 U14 – 5.30 - LT – 2.00 - U16 – 5.30 - 7.00 - 7.00 7.00 3.45 5.00 - 6.30 18 > U16 – U17 – 2.15 U16 – 5.30 - U17 - 5.30 - 7.00 - 7.45 7.00 4.00 - 5.30 20 > U17 – U19 – 2.15 U17 – 2.15 - U19 – 4.30 - 6.00 - 7.45 7.45 4.30 - 6.00 20 U19 – U19 – 2.15 - Includes 4.30 - 6.00 7.45 U18 > Second Second Team Team 22 > Second 10.00 - 10.00 - 11.30 Second Second Team 11.30 Team Team 9.00 - 3.00 - 10.00 - 11.30 3.00 - 10.30 4.30 4.30 3.00 - 3.00 - 4.30 4.30 BT - U7 & U10 24 > First Team LT – U16 & U18 U18 girls – Women – U18 Girls 5.00 - 6.40 7.00 – 4.30 Women – Women – Women – 7.00 5.00 - 6.30 6.00

(2 GK’s Over 32 GK – Group GK – Group with each (Senior) 1: 1: youth 7.30 - 9.00 2.30 - 3.30 2.30 - 3.30

10 team) GK – Group GK – Group 2: 2: 3.30 - 4.30 3.30 - 4.30 BT = Basic Training LT = Fitness Training

11