The winger says being crowned Club World Cup champions will be the ideal end to a “fantastic year” for Bayern Munich, proving they are the best Franck Ribery is targeting one more piece of silverware before the curtain comes down on a glorious 2013 for player and club.
Bayern Munich begin their Club World Cup campaign against Guangzhou Evergrande on Tuesday, hoping to add that title to the Bundesliga, Champions League, DFB Pokal and Uefa Super Cup trophies they have already won over the past 12 months.
Ribery is himself in the running to be named World Player of the Year after being named on Fifa’s three-man Ballon d’Or shortlist, but insists his priority is securing more silverware for the Bavarians.
“The team have had a lot of important matches this year and are a little tired, but we will focus all of our efforts on winning the Club World Cup. That will be the perfect end to a perfect year.” the 30-year-old told Bundesliga.com
“We want to show that we are not just the best side in Europe, but also in the rest of the world.
“To prove we are the best we need to win these matches and we are completely focused on making a fantastic year even better.”
Ribery also fired an ominous warning by declaring that the Bavarians are an even better side with Pep Guardiola in charge than they were under treble-winning coach Jupp Heynckes.
“If you think back to how well we played against Manchester City, you can see Pep is a brilliant coach,” he continued.
“The way we moved the ball that night was perfect. Pep is tactically very clever, he’s very close to us, he talks to us and gives us a lot of confidence – since he’s come we’ve definitely progressed.”
Posted By Kevin Jasper (@KevinJasper3)