FC Bayern Munchen News

Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery has claimed that he would happily remain with the club for the rest of his career.

The former Olympique de Marseile star enjoyed an outstanding 2012-13 campaign for the Bavarians, providing a total of seven assists and scoring four goals in Bundesliga.

“I never had a better feeling in my life than I have in this city. It’s my second home,” the 29-year-old told Abendzeitung.

“All the people, my team-mates, all co-workers of the club, the supporters – all of them give me a good feeling.”

When asked whether he might remain at the club for the rest of his career, Ribery replied positively.

“Yes, and that’s not just a saying. I really mean it. I’ve been here for almost six years now. Everyone knows me, I know everyone. I feel loved. What more can I ask for?”

The Bavarians have not won the Bundesliga the last two seasons, but the Frenchman is certain that the title drought will soon be over.

“We have an excellent season, we’re looking good in all competitions. We attack and we want to win as many titles as possible,” he concluded.

Bayern Munich currently hold a nine-point advantage over second-placed Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.

Bayern Munich skipper Philipp Lahm feels that sporting director Matthias Sammer was right to criticise the team in order to keep them on their toes.

Sammer recently stated that the Allianz Arena side still have plenty of room for improvement, despite their impressive performances in the first half of the season, but Lahm is not too worried about the former Germany star’s criticism.

“Matthias Sammer is right to talk about it – not only when the team loses, but also when we win,” Lahm told the official Bundesliga site.

“It’s his job to address things like that, especially when we’re doing well. The players pay more attention to it than when we lose, because there’s already plenty of external criticism then. The sporting director doesn’t need to add his two cents when we lose.

“We’ll see whether his words have the desired effect or not over the next few weeks. It didn’t seem to work on Saturday because I don’t think we played well. However, I believe we’ll improve over time.”

Bayern beat Greuther Furth 2-0 at the weekend to maintain their nine-point lead over Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga table.

After a lengthy winter hiatus, the Bundesliga came back with a bang over the weekend. Schalke, Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen all grabbed spectacular wins, while Augsburg’s bid to escape relegation was boosted by three points against Fortuna Dusseldorf. And Goal.com is here to pick out the best talent on show.

In goal, we have Oliver Baumann, who made a string of crucial saves to help Freiburg to a 0-0 draw on a tricky trip to Mainz.

In front of him stands one of his team-mates, Pavel Krmas, who forms a back three along with Sebastian Boenisch, who got the ball rolling for Leverkusen against Frankfurt, and Mats Hummels, who put in another fine performance in BVB’s rout at the Weserstadion.

All four of the midfielders were on target this weekend. Lewis Holtby signalled his ongoing commitment to Schalke with two assists and a goal, Mario Gotze added to Marco Reus‘ opener for Dortmund, and Diego‘s strike helped Wolfsburg to their second home win of the season.

Fortuna Dusseldorf may have lost to Augsburg, but Stefan Reisinger almost snatched a point single-handedly with two second-half goals, Stefan Kiessling solidified his case for a Germany call-up with another goal, and Sascha Molders helped Markus Weinzierl’s side to three vital points.

Louis van Gaal believes Bayern Munich have made the right choice to appoint Pep Guardiola as their new head coach as the former Barcelona trainer shares the same footballing philosophy as the Netherlands boss.

The Bundesliga leaders announced last week that Guardiola has signed a three-year deal with Bayern and will take Jupp Heynckes’ place at the end of this season.

“Guardiola’s appointment was not a surprise for me as Bayern always go for the best coaches out there. And Pep follows the Van Gaal-philosophy. I think it’s a fantastic choice,” the Netherlands boss told NOS.

“I’m the one who first employed the formation Bayern Munich are using these days during my time at the club. [Jupp] Heynckes then continued on the same path and Pep is the right man to succeed him. Pep thinks just like Jupp and I.

“Guardiola is a really intelligent guy. He might struggle a bit with the German language, but they all understand English as well.”

Van Gaal was in charge of Bayern from 2009 until 2011.

Arjen Robben has spoken of his complete surprise at Pep Guardiola’s decision to come to Bayern Munich, seeing it as something of a coup for the Bundesliga outfit.

Die Roten announced earlier this week that Guardiola would replace current coach Jupp Heynckes at the end of the season, ending speculation that the Spanish trainer might head to the Premier League after his sabbatical.

The move caught many unawares and Robben revealed that he was no exception when he spoke to reporters after Bayern’s 2-0 win over Greuther Furth.

“I was surprised, also because it happened really quickly,” said the 28-year-old Dutchman.

“One day before he signed I read that he was looking forward to working in the Premier League. A day later he signed at Bayern. It was surprising but good.”

Bayern currently lead the Bundesliga by nine points from second-placed Bayer Leverkusen and several of Robben’s team-mates, such as defender Daniel van Buyten, have stressed the team need to avoid being distracted by the news.

“We are proud, because he [Guardiola] is one of the best, maybe the best coach and he chose the best club,” stated the Belgian.

“But this is in the future. Now we want to deliver a good second half of the season. We do not want to speak a lot about the future.”

This was a sentiment endorsed by Thomas Muller, who also stressed caution against over-optimism:

“Everyone says that Guardiola is good for the Bundesliga and FC Bayern,” the Germany forward told journalists.

“But nobody knows how good the results will be.”

The Bavarians have 45 points from their 18 league fixtures this campaign.