Our twin club in Germany, FC Büderich, is a fantastic community club based in Dusseldorf in the north west of Germany. They have over 700 family members and run teams from kindergarten age through to adults.

They are lucky to have their own stadium and training complex with grass, all-weather and brand new artificial pitches. They have state of the art changing rooms, a new club house all set in leafy grounds.

In 2007 they hosted a visit by FCB U13s. Our first two international matches ended with honours even, with both clubs playing a similar style of technical, passing football that was great to watch. We also got a guided tour of Bayer Leverkusen's BayArena stadium and a day at Europe's biggest theme park, Phantasia. Trip photos

As part of the twinning arrangements, the German kids will visit us in Manchester and other FCB teams will make the trip to Dusseldorf. It's a great experience for the kids and as a club we have modeled a lot of our development plans on how FC Büderich is organised, particularly its place at the heart of the community and the sheer number of kids they have got playing football.