Marion and Jürgen from Munich have been in the USA since FC Bayern started their adventure at the Club World Cup. The couple travel to New York and match venues Cincinnati, Miami and Charlotte and then Chicago. Jürgen says the knockout stage makes it difficult to plan more – and he must save a few days off to accompany his favourite club in the Champions League.
Bayern family around the world
However, the plans could be overturned by the experiences on their current trip. “We’ve met so many great people,” says Jürgen: “Members of the New York City fan club have invited us in case Bayern advance to the final. We don’t need a hotel, just the flight there and then: party!”
The encounters with Bayern fans from across the globe have made their trip to the USA so special. They mingled with the numerours supporters at the fan event at Clutch Kitchen before the match against Benfica in Charlotte – as they had done in Miami and Cincinatti. “I think these events are great because they allow fans to exchange views,” says Marion. Meeting other FCB fans is very important to them. “We really enjoyed that and met lots of people.” From Cincinatti to Toronto to New York, the two will find a place to sleep anywhere now – the Bayern family sticks together, after all.
A customs officer is an FC Bayern fan
Jürgen is fascinated by the “worldwide community of Bayern fans” he experiences in the USA: “What will stay with me is the hospitality, the warmth.” He is already running out of scarves to swap because of so many new friendships. They knew FCB would be omnipresent on their trip when they arrived in the USA. The officer at passport control was also a Bayern fan and had a conversation with the couple about the German record champions when he learned the reason for their trip. “The queue behind us got bigger and bigger, hundreds of people were waiting,” says Jürgen. But the three first had to identify the exact reasons for the Champions League elimination against Inter. “It was sensational,” says Jürgen.
He has been an FC Bayern fan “for as long as I can remember,” says Jürgen. He watched Bayern on black-and-white TV as a small shild, waving his homemade flag in the living room. “That’s how I followed the big European Cup victories 74, 75, 76 live. It was the time of the big names: Beckenbauer, Müller, Maier, Breitner and so on. The Germany national team was basically FC Bayern.” He absorbed the club with heart and mind as a child.
Her dad reminded her of Gerd Müller
Marion too has loved football since her childhood – even before she learned to walk. “My father played football. I was pushed to the pitch in my buggy every Saturday and Sunday,” she reveals. She was born in Frankfurt but had no great sympathy for local club Eintracht – rather with American football team Frankfurt Galaxy. In terms of association football, FC Bayern was her first choice, not least because of a certain resemblance. “My father had the same crooked legs as Gerd Müller. Not the thighs but the ‘bow legs’,” Marion says with a smile.
When Marion met Jürgen in 2001, her passion got even more intense. Later, when the couple had moved to Munich (“for work reasons, thank God,” says Jürgen), the two and some friends founded the fan club Viktus-Buam München – named after Munich’s Viktualienmarkt, where the fans had always met before matches. As chance would have it, the year 2001 was relevant for the fan festival in Charlotte. The two met club legend Claudio Pizarro there and took a picture with the 2001 Intercontinental Cup winner.
Jürgen and Marion had already met Giovane Élber, another 2001 hero, at the fan festival in Miami. Jürgen has another anecdote to tell about the Brazilian. He was in Milan for the 2001 Champions League final and attended the party afterwards: Bayern had rented a location, and “of course there were hundreds of VIPs. We somehow slipped in and then we saw Giovane Élber. He opened the door for us and we celebrated with the team until the early hours.” Jürgen and the former forward talked about the experience they shared in Miami.
Marion has also been on Champions League trips, altough other fan club members jokingly said after two defeats that she should stop, Marion reveals. Bayern’s results at the Club World Cup have been okay for the couple so far, the defeat to Benfica in the last match wasn’t too bad. And who knows, maybe Marion and Jürgen will have to pack their bags again in mid-July to see FC Bayern in New York.
Juan from Denver watched FC Bayern live in the Club World Cup match against Boca Juniors:
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