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Ikoli victor
DOHA
Around 300 fans turned up to watch FC Bayern Munich's training session at the Aspire Academy under coach Jupp Heynckes on Wednesday morning during their customary winter training camp in Qatar.
The Aspire Zone is the venue for the eighth consecutive year as Bayern return to a familiar environment to step up their bid for a sixth straight Bundesliga title, and glory in the DFB Cup and UEFA Champions League.
Apart from members of the Bayern Munich fan association, this year's training camp has attracted fans from Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Algeria and Kuwait.
Speaking on the sidelines of the training session, the President of the Kuwait-based FC Bayern Munich Fans Association, Mohammed al Damkhi, said:"We have attended FC Bayern Munich's training camp in Doha for the past six years and it's become a key event on our agenda. The Aspire Zone training camps are great and provide the ideal melting pot for football fans and their favourite football stars."
Bayern's longest-serving player Franck Ribery, Dutch master Arjen Robben, German star Thomas Muller and new signing Sandro Wagner took part in the session as 19 first-team players were joined by five members of the youth team. The team also included its South American trio of Arturo Vidal, Rafinha and James Rodriguez who arrived yesterday morning on time for training.
The weather conditions were perfect at 25c and the players looked fresh during the morning exercise. After a light warm-up with running drills, the players were divided into two sides and were tasked to do drills with the ball. The Bayern coach guided the players through the passing exercises and a game with no goal post on the perfect green Aspire pitch. During the passing drills, fiery midfielder Vidal was at his usual flamboyant self with his hard flying tackles. Ribery got the applause of the fans with his perfect ball control.
Other part of the training saw the players involved with sit-ups with weight, knee with bungee cords and hops over mini hurdles. The training lasted around 75 minutes.
According to the Bayern Munich website, the Bayern fitness coaches had set up eight stations where every player twice had to spend 30 seconds. Experts call them functional full-body strengthening exercises for stabilisation and prevention. The Bayern players described it as hard work.
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Sven Ulreich suffered an injury during the training. The 29-year-old seemed to have hurt his right hand. Ulreich has been standing in for the injured Manuel Neuer, and Bayern may therefore need to call on their 36-year-old third choice Tom Starke, who has already played twice this season.
The training continues on Thursday through Sunday from 11.00 am. On Saturday, Bayern will take on QNB Stars League side Al Ahli in a friendly, five days before the Bundesliga resumes with a trip to Bayer Leverkusen.
