Makaay Joins up with Bayern Munich Team

Dutch forward Roy Makaay has fired a broadside to his club's rivals both in Germany and Europe, after joining up with Bayern Munich squad for pre-season training. Makaay was the second top scorer last season, behind Nurnberg's Marek Mintal. How ever he made an incredible number of nine goals in the final four games of the season, signalling his intent for the new campaign, which begins on August 5.

"We can just keep going where we left off last season" Makaay said at the training camp on Lake Tegernsee. "It's not going to get any easier for our opponents. That's for sure. The squad is almost the same, which is an advantage for us." Roy Makaay and his team-mates either were confronted with torrential rain on Wednesday, which forced their gruelling annual run up the Wallberg mountain to be cancelled - but only for the time being.

Coach Felix Magath will stick by his hard training methods that helped his side to the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double last season, but the bar for this season has been raised with success in the Champions League taking a higher priority.