German soccer club Bayern Munich yesterday announced a partnership with Global Premier Soccer, one of the largest youth soccer organizations in the U.S. The partnership will allow the team, which recently opened a N.Y. office to further expand its footprint in the country, to bring elements of its own youth academy, including coaches, curriculum and uniforms, to the more than 55,000 kids and 5,000 coaches supported by GPS in the U.S. Bayern Munich academy coaches will come to the U.S. on a regular basis to help teach other coaches training methods and principles, and players in the academy could also have the opportunity try out for teams in Germany in the summer. Bayern Munich U.S. Managing Dir Rudolf Vidal said that the club is continuing to take steps to further build its brand and make a deeper connection with soccer fans in the U.S., but "it’s very important to foster the development of youth players, and that’s why we made it our first priority" (Ian Thomas, Staff Writer).
GLOBAL GROWTH: SI's Grant Wahl profiles Bayern Munich in this week's issue and notes at a time when "Middle Eastern sheiks and Russian oligarchs have turned European soccer into a Wild West of spending, Bayern is debt-free, owns its space-age stadium and preaches the social responsibility that comes with majority ownership of 235,000 dues-paying members." While "much has changed" since current FIFA Special Advisor and former Bayern player Franz Beckenbauer played on the team, the club "still takes pride in developing its own stars from an early age." Meanwhile, Bayern Exec Board member Jörg Wacker last year "came up with a plan" after realizing that the club "was lagging behind Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona in fandom." Wacker focused Bayern "on expanding its footprint in two countries, the U.S. and China." The club in late July took an "exhibition tour in the U.S." and opened the N.Y. office. Not long before that, Bayern "welcomed to Munich 30 journalists from China's CCTV network for a few days." Now that Bayern "is debt-free, the club has acquired land near its nine-year-old, 71,000-seat Allianz Arena to build a new youth academy," which will open by '17 (SI, 11/17 issue).
