Fans gather to celebrate Bayern title

Fans gather to celebrate Bayern title

Published May. 9, 2010 8:48 p.m. ET

More than 25,000 fans celebrated Bayern Munich's 22nd German championship as the team's lederhosen-clad players sang and danced on the balcony of the city hall.

Sunday's festivities came one day after Bayern clinched the Bundesliga title with a 3-1 win at relegated Hertha Berlin.

Coach Louis van Gaal's team can still win two more titles. Bayern plays Werder Bremen next Saturday in the German Cup final in Berlin, and takes on Inter Milan in the Champions League final one week later in Madrid.

"We are the best in Germany and maybe in Europe too," a jubilant van Gaal said in addressing the crowd.

The coach was given a triumphant welcome after he and his players arrived to the ceremony in a convoy of convertibles through Munich's streets.

The celebrations began after the match in Berlin, continued in a Munich restaurant and finished early in the morning in a nightclub.

Van Gaal won his seventh championship in a third country after his native Netherlands and Spain and became the first Dutch coach to win the Bundesliga title.

"The players believed in me from day one. That's the best a coach can get," Van Gaal told Bayern's website. "We believed together that we can do it and the result has come."

Van Gaal can become the third coach to win the Champions League with two different teams. He also won it with Ajax in 1995.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said earlier Sunday that he believed France winger Franck Ribery would remian with Bayern, not only for another season but even longer.

Rummenigge said talks with Ribery on his future will not be held before the Champions League final. Ribery is suspended for the final unless the Court of Arbitration for Sport accepts Bayern's appeal.

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