Reuters Soccer Blog

Franck Ribery has been putting in overtime to learn German since he arrived at Bayern Munich in July in a record-breaking 25 million euro transfer. As he said at the time, he wants to be an integral part of the club.

The gifted France midfielder has clearly integrated himself in Munich with vital goals but he has not yet discovered the subtleties of German humour.

On Sunday, rain-drenched fans at relegation-threatened Arminia Bielefeld resorted to gallows humour to stay warm before their match against Bayern with self-deprecating chants about their little-known playmaker Jonas Kamper: “We have Kamper, who needs Ribery?” (“Wir haben Kamper, Scheiss auf Ribery”)

After a magnificent solo effort in the 22nd minute, when he outraced two Bielefeld defenders and rounded goalkeeper Mathias Hain before powering an angled shot into the vacant goal, Ribery pushed away team mates rushing to congratulate him and ran to the Bielefeld section, where he made an unflattering gestures about their pre-match chants as if to say: “You’re all talk.” As the jeers erupted, he cupped his hand over his ear as if to say: “I still can’t hear you.”

Ribery’s German team mate Miroslav Klose admonished him for the taunt – “I ran over and told him to knock it off,” Klose said — but Ribery later told journalists (in French) that he couldn’t resist giving it back to them.

“I understood exactly what they were singing,” Ribery said after Bayern’s 1-0 win took them back top. “That kind of thing is normal in football. But it nevertheless gave me tremendous joy to score that goal.”

PHOTO: Ribery gives a thumbs-up after Bayern’s win over Bielefeld, December 2, 2007. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender