Hamburg, Aug 6 (DPA) Bayern Munich are the top favourite with no-nonsense coach Louis van Gaal as they lead the charge on surprise champions VfL Wolfsburg when the Bundesliga season kicks off Friday.

Munich chose van Gaal's authority after the failure of the Juergen Klinsmann experiment from last season.

They fought off big interest from Real Madrid in their French superstar Franck Ribery and splashed out 50 million euros (72 million dollars) in new players, led by Germany striker Mario Gomez, who joined from VfB Stuttgart for a league-record 30 million euros.

Wolfsburg outlasted Munich to win a surprise first title thanks to the magic of former Bayern coach Felix Magath and 54 goals from the striker duo of Grafite (28) and Edin Dzeko (26).

Magath has since departed for the biggest challenge of his life at Schalke 04 as Wolfsburg aim to establish themselves at the top under new helmsman Armin Veh.

SV Hamburg, Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen hope to play at the top as well in what Magath has named 'the strongest league in the world' because it is more balanced than the Premier League, Serie A and Spain's Primera Division.

The 18 clubs have sold a record 435,000 season tickets and shirt sponsors are splashing out more money than elsewhere for a league total of 130 million euros for the season.

With the transfer window still open until August 31, the clubs have already spent a record 178.5 million euros on new players.

That may be less than the big summer investment of Real Madrid alone, and the Bundesliga may not be able to lure the game's biggest stars, but the league is appealing for many other players and healthy.

'The Bundesliga is very attractive for players. We have by far the best stadiums and the biggest amount of spectators in the world,' said Bayer Leverkusen sports director Rudi Voeller.

Munich are expected to lead the way again this time around with their first game a true test at TSG Hoffenheim on a new Saturday evening slot.