Bayern expands its American youth presence

Bayern Munich players exercise during a training session at the ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014. (Osama Faisal/AP)

NEW YORK — Expanding its U.S. presence, German champion Bayern Munich is launching a partnership between its youth academy and Global Premier Soccer.

Bayern coaches will spend about five weeks annually in the U.S. working with GPS, which organizes 75 youth clubs in 11 states. Bayern hopes the deal with lead to developing American prospects.

The agreement was announced Wednesday at a news conference with Bayern Munich managing director Rudolf Vidal and Wolfgang Dremmler, the head of Bayern’s youth academy and a starter for the West German team that lost to Italy in the 1982 World Cup final.

Bayern opened a New York office in July and is hoping for increased exposure in 2015-16 when Fox starts a five-year contract to take over U.S. television rights from GolTV, a network with limited distribution that has held them since 2006-07.

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