2024-07-18 04:19:40
FC Bayern Munich is the most successful football club in Germany. In our news ticker you will find all the important news about the record champions.
At the beginning of his first training session, Vincent Kompany addressed the few Bayern stars with a lot of gestures – after the brief applause, Serge Gnabry, Leon Goretzka & Co. moved on to their next tasks. The new coach of the dethroned German football serial champions made a mini squad sweat for the first time at the start of the preparation.
The mini squad, including Hiroki Ito, the only new addition, was already on the pitch for the warm-up 20 minutes before the official start of training. Kompany, who was wearing a red cap under the cloudy Munich sky, mostly watched. Later he gave commands in both German and English, which he declared to be the “business language”. He repeatedly used his whistle. After the warm-up exercises, Kompany gathered the professionals together and gave a speech lasting several minutes. This was followed by brief applause.
You have to feel from the start “that it’s a new season and that the mentality is there right away,” Kompany said on club TV. “We have to focus on getting back to the top. The squad has to have 100 percent of this focus and intensity in order to be successful again.” That is also the aim of the bosses, who want more competition in the squad.
The European Championship participants, including Harry Kane, who will be in the team until the final, will only join in the coming weeks. They all have three weeks’ holiday. So Kompany will not have the squad together until after the trip to South Korea from July 31 to August 5. Midfielder João Palhinha (FC Fulham) and winger Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) are also not yet included as further new signings. The Munich team spent around 125 million euros on the duo and Ito.
Bayern Munich’s sporting director Christoph Freund did not want to comment further on the many speculations about possible arrivals and departures at the record champions. “We cannot rule out that something else will happen and that one or two players could leave the club. But there is no new status. We will see what the next few weeks bring,” Freund said succinctly on Tuesday.
There is also “not much to say” about Dutchman Xavi Simons, who is being talked about as a potential transfer, said Freund. Nevertheless, he was enthusiastic about the offensive player. Simons is a “very good player who played a very good European Championship and developed very well in Leipzig. He will have a very good career, at the highest level.”
Basically, FC Bayern are “very happy that we have already been able to make three transfers. They were absolutely dream transfers. We are very well positioned in terms of the squad. It is very important that we have perfected a few things very early on and that we do not come under pressure,” emphasised Freund. According to Freund, there have been talks with Alphonso Davies, whose contract expires in 2025, “which have not yet led to an agreement. The door is not closed. He is now entering the last year of his contract, then we will see.”