MUMBAI: Bundesliga heavyweights Bayern Munich are likely to open a full-fledged training academy to up its grassroots development efforts in India, the club’s head of international brand management Andreas Kufner revealed at a sports conference here recently.
While claiming that ‘quality is more important than quantity’ when it comes to Bayern’s investment in the context, he was pleased that the club’s involvement for a decade in the Indian market is finally paying dividends. It has resulted in the top German club having 128 million fans in the country alone, matching it with the likes of USA and China. On digital platforms, Bayern has attracted 2.5 million Indian followers, the most for any club in the Bundesliga.
During this period, the defending champions have organized tours such as that of the First Team, Trophy Tour and most recently, was an integral part of the Bundesliga Legends Tour in which legendary player Lothar Matthaus visited cities such as Mumbai and Kochi.
Kufner also spoke about the incentive that the Bayern Youth Cup provides to young, budding Indian footballers who could get a chance to rub shoulders with the first team players at the Allianz Arena at the end of the Bundesliga season. The tournament is into its sixth edition and is co-promoted by adidas.
He was quick to laud the efforts of Star Sports, Bundesliga’s official broadcaster in India and said that the club and the league in general, are striving for a greater reach.
From a global perspective, Kufner revealed that club has 348,000 members and 4,400 fan clubs. It is amongst the top 5 followed clubs online with over 80 million followers.
However, Bayern isn’t the only Bundesliga club keen for its work to shine in the Indian market.
According to Peer Naubert, the league’s global marketing head in Digital and Communications, Borussia Dortmund and TSG Hoffenheim are also planning for collaborations with other Indian clubs and preparing for more fan activation strategies.
At the same event, Naubert said that the league in totally, has invested a whopping 1.3 billion euros ($1.48 billion) in training academies across the world since 2002. In the last five years, the funding has been 163.41 million euros ($186 million), signaling a meteoric rise in the competition going international.
