The presence of a winter break in German football gives Bundesliga players a chance to spend around a week and a half with their families and recuperate while multiple other leagues play through Christmas and beyond. When the players return from their vacation, however, regaining match fitness is crucial ahead of the league’s restart. Given the relatively short timeframe, Bayern Munich has always preferred to limit themselves to just one friendly and keep it close to home, as evidenced by multiple recent January friendlies against RB Salzburg.
This season, however, the plan is different. Bayern will travel to Nairobi, Kenya, to play a friendly against Ajax Amsterdam.According to reporter Manuel Bonke, (as captured by @iMiaSanMia) the friendly was not scheduled for the sake of preparing for the upcoming Bundesliga restart, but because the money was simply too good to turn down:
Bayern will receive €5m for the trip to Nairobi, Kenya to play a friendly against Ajax on January 5th. Vincent Kompany approved the trip, which was then handled by Marketing and sales director Rouven Kasper. ‘For that kind of money, you have to do it’, it was said at Säbener Straße.
It certainly is an unprecedented amount of money, though it is worth wondering how it will affect the Bavarians’ return to the Bundesliga season. They will face Borussia Mönchengladbach on January 9th, meaning the players will need to fly all the way back to Munich and get just over three days to rest before their next match. Will this be the only friendly of the winter pre-season camp? These are not insurmountable issues, and it is good that Kompany had the option to veto the trip. Furthermore, it should be nice for the fans in Kenya to see Bayern play Ajax. On a side note, it has also been far too long since Bayern has faced Ajax, but one can wonder how such a trip will affect Bayern’s season restart.
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Ultimately, though, money makes the world go round—and that is a lot of money for one friendly.
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