Landon Donovan got his second taste of training with Bayern Munich today as 400 fans showed up to watch the Senior Squad (plus Landon, minus the starters who got the full 90 minute run out during Munich’s 2 - 1 win over Shalke at the weekend) take on the Reserve Team.

My opinion - Landon deserves the opportunity to test himself at the highest level.

He’s 26 years old, had done a lot more for this league / country than could ever be credited to him and is the best player America has ever produced, hands down.
images via FCBayern 

When France’s Franck Ribery opted out of his contract with Agent Bruno Heiderscheid only days before his big money transfer from Marseille to Bayern Munich in June of 2007, Heiderscheid pushed for his part of the $33.7 Million transfer / agent fees that came along with the move and took it all the way to the Court of Arbitration of Sport.

With the Luxembourg based Heiderscheid looking for $8.5 Million in damages and being turned down in his initial approach to CAS, the agent appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal (Switzerland’s Supreme Court) which not only denied Heiderscheid again, but ruled that he must PAY Ribery back $483,000 in agent fees that the Bayern Munich player had already payed to Heiderscheid.

The Tribunal ruled that because Heiderscheid had a 2000 conviction of Financial Offenses (and Ribery was signed to a contract with Heiderscheid in 2005), his Luxembourg Agent License was consider null and void under French law which states that Agents must have a clean record to hold an Agents license.

In a scathing attack on Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, Bayern Munich General Manager Uli Hoeness declared via the Daily Mail that ‘Thanks to the huge investments many clubs make, there are no longer any serial European Cup winners similar  to Ajax and Bayern in the Seventies.

‘The old hierarchy has been abolished.  A better-balanced competition sounds tempting, but I don’t know whether the investments have been good for football.  I get annoyed every week when I go to fill my car up with petrol. The oil Mafia is taking money out of my pocket to invest it in footballers.

(more…)

Jurgen Klinsmann’s Bayern Munich fell 1-nil to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in the inaugural Franz Beckenbauer Cup through Mancini’s absolutely sick goal in the 52nd minute.

Now Munich’s attention will continue to focus on their opening round Bundesliga match against Hamburg on August 15th.

Bayern Munich and Jurgen Klinsmann continued their pre-season preparations today with a match against FC Koln at the RheinEnergie in front of 42,ooo.

And yes, our boy Joseph Ngwenya (of ex-Galaxy / Crew / Dynamo fame) continued his Bayern Munich “3 week trial”, coming on for German International Miroslav Klose at halftime.
1. FC Köln - Bayern Munich 0-0 (H-T: 0-0)

While the match drew nil-nil, I’ll let you decide how Ngwenya did with the 2007/08 Bundesliga Champions.

Check out GOLTV (614 on Direct TV) at 9.30pm East Coast time (6.30 pm West Coast) for the replay and let us know what you thought of the Ex-MLS player and how he did.

image via Cache

Jurgen Klinsmann, along with his Californian assistants Martin Vazquez and Nick Theslof have a lot of work in front of them this season.

Still waiting to see who Klinsmann’s new choice for Captain will be after Oliver Kahn retired.

Frances’ Franck Ribery has been named the best player in the Bundesliga, winning 57.8% of the 268 player vote.

Ribery’s Munich teammate Luca Toni was named 2nd best player, winning 24.8% of the votes.  Weder Bremen’s Brazilian playmaker, Diego was 3rd with 8.5%.

Not bad for the guy they call Scarface.

This is an amazing achievement for Ribery, considering this is only his first year at Munich.

image via Football-Wallpapers

First it was former US International Martin Vasquez and now it’s former Columbus Crew’er Nick Theslof joining Jurgen Klinsmann’s staff at Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich.

Set to take over in July, Klinsmann’s relationship with the former UCLA standout started when Theslof took over California Blue Star which at the time was a PDL team in Southern California. Klinsmann, playing under the moniker Jay Goppingen for the city he was born in, was playing for fun after retiring from his illustrious career alongside future pro players like Calen Carr, Kamani Hill, Kei Kamara, Sal Zizzo, Robbie Rogers and Sacha Kljestan, while Theslof was the head coach.

Theslof’s official title will be International Scout and will be working closely with Munich’s Wolfgang Dremmier, but this isn’t the first time Theslof has worked with Klinsmann. He was also involved with the German National Team when Klinsmann was in charge, taking in important International Matches and reporting directly to Klinsmann with scouting reports.

image via FCBayern

When a lucrative contract is placed before you and you sign on the dotted line, how obligated are you?

Yes, contractually you’re obligated to play for the team and do as your told by the coach as you’re probably being well accommodated, but what about teams selling players while their contract is still active and making boatloads of cash on them?  Is that loyalty to the player?  Or is it just a fact of life, until the player makes new “contract demands” after great performances (ie World Cup, African Nations Cup, Olympics) and then is labeled a prick who needs to shut his mouth and play out the contract he signed?

Argentina National Team and Bayern Munich defender Martin Demichelis was today suspended indefinitely from the team after refusing to move into the defensive midfield role for Bayern Saturday against Energie Cottbus in the German Bundesliga.

Head Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld (who’s done at the end of the season and is being replaced by Jurgen Klinsmann) told the press, “A player can’t state his wishes,” Hitzfeld said. “Until further notice he is suspended.”

image via Diarioepoca

Only Germany will have more than one representative in the Final 8 of the Uefa Cup as both Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen pushed through.

Joining them will be Rangers (Scotland),Sporting CP (Portugal), Fiorentina (Italy), PSV Eindhoven (Holland), Getafe (Spain) and Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia).
image via BBC