After a very successful tour of Japan and Singapore the previous year, plus a number of new Asian signings in Kim Min-jae and Hiroki Ito, it was only a matter of time before Bayern Munich visited the Far East again. The Bayern fans in Asia didn’t have to wait long at all, as the club announced that they would be visiting South Korea for the first time in its 124-year history.
Although the traveling squad was missing a few big names due to the EUROs and Copa America, most notably Harry Kane, it still featured a colorful lineup. One such man was Thomas Müller, who posted a trademark video announcing the start of the tour from the team’s Korean Air charter plane. Interestingly enough, the team traveled by one of Korea’s flagship carriers, which normally does not serve routes to and from Munich. If you’re looking for a direct flight from Munich to Korea, Lufthansa is your only option.
An 11-hour flight later, the team landed at Incheon International Airport, around an hour outside of the country’s capital city of Seoul. The team was greeted by around 300 enthusiastic fans, and the players’ first workout began with signing countless autographs for the fans who had made the long journey to Incheon. Captain Manuel Neuer in particular tried his hardest to reach every fan he could. The fans didn’t stop there, though, and more followed the team to their hotel in Yeouido, Seoul’s primary financial district. There, the team posed for a photo atop the hotel’s helipad, overlooking the Han River.
Afterwards, the team took a half-hour bus ride to Goyang Stadium, where they had a short training session, mainly to get used to the torrid conditions of the Korean summer. A heads-up for anyone unfamiliar with Korea in summer, it’s one of the worst places to be on Earth. Temperatures stay well over 30 degrees Celsius, and sometimes go over 35. But what sets Korean summers apart isn’t the heat, it’s the humidity. Being a country surrounded on three sides by water, Korea is extremely humid in the summer, sometimes to the point that it’s hard to just stand still, let alone play football.
However, the heat didn’t stop Mathys Tel and Aleksandar Pavlović from going on a little evening excursion that involved a bike ride along the riverbank and some Korean ramen, a staple for dates by the Han River. Min-jae also treated his teammates to traditional Korean barbecue, which Joshua Kimmich apparently particularly enjoyed.
The second day was Bayern’s open training session at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. In front of over 10,000 fans, the entire team was put through its paces with rondos, attacking build-up drills, and four games on a reduced pitch. Two of the games ended in 0-0 and 2-2 draws, while the other two ended in 1-0 wins for the team in bibs. This writer was lucky enough to attend this training session, and here are a few insights:
- Due to the open nature of the session, there weren’t any particularly tactical drills.
- Manuel Neuer was on point, making outstanding saves all throughout the hour-long session.
- Thomas Müller was easily the most popular player. Whenever he got caught on the jumbotron, the fans went into rapture. There were more fans wearing his shirt (including yours truly) than any other player’s, even Kim’s.
- The weather did not help matters at all. Major props to everyone who had to run around in the suffocating heat.
- Apart from Neuer and Müller, Jamal Musiala was a standout. He scored one of the winners in the practice games.
- Vincent Kompany has one loud mouth. His voice could be heard all over the stadium.
Sadly, this writer was not a part of the meet-and-greet that happened after the session, but he still left the stadium a very happy man.
Before the training session, Musiala and Sven Ulreich got to meet some more fans at a Bayern pop-up store in Seoul, just about a ten minute subway ride from the World Cup Stadium. Stadium announcer Stephan Lehmann was also present to introduce the duo. The meet-and-greet was held at Over The Pitch, a clothing brand that combines football and fashion. It was through them that Bayern’s jerseys got to sport Korean names and numbers for the trip.
In the meantime, Müller, Kim, and Konrad Laimer were at another meet-and-greet in Yeouido, not too far away from the team hotel.
Meanwhile, some other lucky fans and influencers had the honor of playing five-a-side football with Bayern legends Claudio Pizarro and Giovane Élber at adidas The BASE, a collection of street football pitches atop Yongsan Station, Seoul’s main transit hub for southwest bound trains. Lehmann was also there to comment on the match. Pizarro’s team won the game and celebrated with a rather floppy Meisterschale.
The third day was the big day, the Coupang Play Series match against Tottenham Hotspur. We all know what happened, Bayern played a very good game and won the title with goals from Gabriel Vidović and Leon Goretzka. Bayern also debuted their black and bronze away kit, as well as the aforementioned Korean flocking. The Seoul World Cup Stadium was completely sold out for the match, and the fans were delighted by Bayern’s play, not to mention the reunion between compatriots Kim and Spurs captain Son Heung-min.
The day after the win, Müller, Kim, João Palhinha, and coach Kompany took part in yet another meet-and-greet, this time at the adidas brand center in Gangnam. Yes, it’s the same Gangnam from Gangnam Style. The quartet was notably presented with pictures depicting some of their most iconic career moments in traditional Korean wear. For example, Müller’s picture featured him with the World Cup trophy, while Kim’s featured him after scoring his first Bayern goal.
Afterwards, Kim and Serge Gnabry filmed a gym workout with singer and bodybuilding influencer Jong Gook Kim, while Kimmich and others tried their hand at traditional Korean foot volleyball, called Jokgu. Kimmich and Co. were confident in facing some of Korea’s best Jokgu players, but ended up getting their bottoms handed to them.
Before the team left, some players even made an appearance on Korean Saturday Night Live, with Müller obviously taking center stage. Once he ends his career, if he wants to pursue an entirely different field, being a comedian in Korea would not be a bad choice for him.
Thus ended the 2024 Audi Summer Tour in Korea, and it was quite surreal from a Korean fan’s perspective. It was the first time that Bayern had gotten any sort of recognition within the country, although the club’s image had steadily been growing after the Kim signing. But this was on another level. Bayern’s away kit was debuted in Seoul before anywhere else in the world, and the pop-up store at Over The Pitch still remains to this day, long after the team left the country.
As a Bayern fan, it was so hard to actually get quality Bayern-related content in Korea, but this time, there was so much content to consume that it was almost too much. Never did this writer dream that a Korean store would ever be selling both versions of Bayern’s goalkeeper kit. And the special treatment does not seem to be stopping any time soon, with the new Oktoberfest kit already debuting in Korea almost exactly at the time of its release in Germany.
Moreover, it was refreshing to see that so many Korean fans were sharing the glorious love of FC Bayern. Yes, many of them probably jumped on the bandwagon because of Kim, but there were so many others who said that they had been supporting the team for many years. Alas, due to the relative lack of interest in the Bundesliga, it was hard to find those fans, let alone interact with them, but this tour ignited a spark that brought hundreds, thousands of Korean Bayern fans together. This writer could not have imagined so many Bayern shirts in one place other than Munich, let alone in South Korea. Some things just seem too good to be true, yet they are.
But content, goods, and fan euphoria aside, on a personal level, it was just great to see the players again. The last time this writer had seen the great Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller was five years ago in Berlin. If one had told him that he would be reunited with them in his own backyard, he would have laughed in his or her face, and yet, here we are. With the two legends now in the twilights of their careers, it felt amazing to witness them play in person possibly one last time. It was an experience that this writer will never forget for the rest of his life.
Even almost two months later, Bayern’s tour of South Korea remains a fond memory for every Bayern fan living here. Perhaps it was no wonder that the club’s executive vice chairman Michael Diederich officially declared the most recent Audi Summer Tour “the most successful tour FC Bayern’s ever had.”
When or if the club will ever make another trip to Korea remains up in the air, but this writer can guarantee that the fans will always make Bayern feel welcome in the Land of the Morning Calm.