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FC Bayern Munich and Major League Soccer champions Los Angeles Football Club are to cooperate in the development of young talent. To this end, the two clubs have set up a joint venture (Red&Gold Football) based in Munich. The management team will be announced in the near future. The aim of the cooperation is to develop international talents, also in cooperation with partner clubs, for their own teams and for professional football.
Oliver Kahn, CEO of FC Bayern Munich, said, “FC Bayern will expand its promotion of young talent with Los Angeles Football Club. On an international level, soccer is developing rapidly, which is also evident in the transfer market. We see this partnership as an opportunity to strengthen FC Bayern in the sporting competition with the best clubs in Europe and the Bundesliga. The fact that the 2026 World Cup will largely take place in the USA, where we already have an office in New York, makes Los Angeles even more attractive. I expect a boost in quality and young talent in Major League Soccer, which will have a positive impact on our partnership.”
Hasan Salihamidzic, FC Bayern’s Chief Sports Officer, said, “The cooperation with Los Angeles Football Club gives us the chance to develop talent internationally within our own system. Our campus, which remains at the heart of FC Bayern’s youth development, will also benefit. In the future, we will be able to offer our young players a career path that is even better tailored to them and thus a better transition into our professional teams and professional soccer. This makes FC Bayern more attractive as a youth development club.”
John Thorrington, Co-President and General Manager of LAFC, said, “A partnership of this magnitude is the next step in our evolution as a club. We are extremely excited to work together with FC Bayern Munich to identify and develop young talent in Southern California and beyond and believe this relationship will provide players throughout our systems the ability to maximize their potential and see a clear pathway to our first teams.”
“This is a truly special moment for LAFC,” LAFC Co-President & CBO Larry Freedman said. “We look forward to working together with our partner FC Bayern to not only develop talent and continue to grow our sport and our brand on the global stage, but to share best practices and improve our organizations off the pitch as well.”
Since 2014, FC Bayern has established three foreign offices: In New York for the American market, in Shanghai for the Chinese market (2017) and in Bangkok (2022) for the Southeast Asian market. FC Bayern is also in touch with its international fans and partners via regular summer tours of the professional team to the USA or Asia.
Los Angeles Football Club was founded in 2014 and played its first game in Major League Soccer in 2018. In 2020, LAFC made its first appearance in the finals of the CONCACAF Champions League, which features the best clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. In 2022, Los Angeles Football Club won the MLS championship for the first time.
Since 2018, the team of head coach Steven Cherundolo (44, formerly a Bundesliga professional for many years with Hannover 96) has won more regular season matches than any other team in Major League Soccer. So far, every single regular season and playoff match at BMO Stadium – where LAFC plays its home games in South Los Angeles – has also been sold out with 22,000 spectators. In 2022, Italian soccer world champion Giorgio Chiellini, 38, moved from Juventus Turin to Los Angeles Football Club.
