Frank Ribery has been consistently one of the best players for Bayern Munich since arriving in a £ 25 million deal six years ago. The midfielder is on course to winning his first FIFA Ballon d’Or award after being named on the shortlist of three by UEFA.

This is one of the prestigious awards given to a footballer. Ribery managed to win three major titles last season including the Champions league and the Bundesliga title. Ribery was part of the Bayern Munich team that had lost in the final of the Champions league twice in three years before that.

Ribery has recalled how the defeats against Inter Milan and Chelsea came to the rescue in the match against Borussia Dortmund. Ribery and Arjen Robben played an extremely crucial part in the victory with the latter scoring the winning goal. Ribery has said that the team lacked mental strength in the past, but it was the opposite last season as they managed to totally dominate domestic and European competitions. Now, Bayern Munich are under the management of Guardiola, who was extremely successful at Barcelona.
Immediately after taking over, Guardiola has changed the successful 4-2-3-1 formation by adopting a 4-1-4-1 formation. Ribery has said that even though it is tough to accommodate this new system, he is confident that the players will find a balance soon.

“It’s all been very positive so far. He’s still trying things out, particularly on the tactical front, but I enjoy the training, because we’re nearly always working with the ball. Every drill needs your total concentration. A lot of it’s concerned with tactical details and we need a bit of time yet to find the right balance, but I’m sure we’ll soon have it. You can see how engaged and focused the coach is,” said Ribery.