From traveling to China to playing a Champions League match in Zagreb to a U.S. call-up, the Bayern midfielder recently wrapped up a successful season.

Hello everybody,

An eventful season with FC Bayern that included many of my sporting highlights has come to an end.

After returning from Hamburg last summer, it felt like I had never been away and I resumed training with the first team straight away. Despite all the seriousness and focus, I like being on the pitch with Jerome Boateng, David Alaba and Joshua Kimmich. It’s always nice to be around those guys.

At the end of July, I went on a trip to China for eight days with the team. That was an exciting experience. It was my first time in China, and cities over there are incredibly large! The skyline of Shanghai was especially impressing. The heat and the humidity really took its toll during the training and our matches against Valencia, Inter and Guangzhou Evergrande.

Going into last season, my priority was to play on a regular basis. That’s why I decided at the start of the season to go for a place in the second team, while regularly training with the first squad during the weeks. We had the goal of being promoted to the third division again and had a good run at the start of the season. After that, consistency was lacking, so we unnecessarily dropped a lot of points. We could have done much better – and that was shown in our results against Regensburg, a team that won promotion. We drew 1-1 in the first match and won the second one 1-0.

In December, I was part of the starting XI in the first team playing in the Champions League away in Zagreb. It’s a special atmosphere in the team and in the stadium during Champions League matches. You’ll get goosebumps – at the latest, when they are playing the anthem of the competition.

During the winter break I traveled with the first team squad to Doha to take part in their training camp. The conditions there were excellent, the hotel was just 20 yards away from the pitch. A non-football-related highlight was watching the ATP final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. It was my first time watching a tennis match live – and it was extremely exciting for me.

After the last Bundesliga match of the season against Hannover there was the big trophy party in Munich’s Post Palast. As a surprise guest, OneRepublic performed: It was a great show by Ryan Tedder – and by Thomas Muller, our party animal!

The next morning, I traveled to Miami to join the U.S. national team and started with the preparations for the Copa America. At the end of the week-long training camp we played Puerto Rico and won 3-1 with relative ease. The heat made it very hard for us to play nevertheless. I had some decent action and I was satisfied with my performance. I am always looking forward to meeting up with the U.S. boys. I get along especially well with DeAndre Yedlin and Alfredo Morales. Those are the guys I have spent with most of my free time with during the training camps.

My conclusion for the season 2015-16 is a positive one: I have reached my main goal, to get more playing time, with the second team. Of course, I would have liked being called up more times for the first team. I know I have the potential to prove myself in the Bundesliga. Besides some matches for the Under-23 national team I played for the senior team in May.

Now it’s time for several days of vacation for me! Next up in my agenda is July 11, when Bayern Munich restarts training.



That’s it for now, have a good time,

Yours,

Julian.