"I've contributed my part for Dortmund becoming a constant again"
When speaking about the new rise of our BVB 09 during the era of Jürgen Klopp, the name Nuri Sahin is hard to overhear. He is a symbol for the development of our young team that is proving that the dream of making it to Europe is possible more than ever. Since his 12th birthday, the young Turk has been part of Borussia Dortmund and never left with the exception of his time on loan in the Netherlands. Before the match against Leverkusen last Saturday, Nuri took much time for schwatzgelb and had many interesting answers to all our questions as we talked about the current situation, his personal development and future pretensions.
schwatzgelb: Nuri, for the first time during this season, you won't be in the line-up against Leverkusen. You have become a regular starter, a member of the team council and you've even been the captain but when Jürgen Klopp came to Dortmund, he was not willing to keep you at any cost. How do you see your personal development since the arriving of our new coach?
Nuri Sahin: Really positive. I'm a starter for more than a year now, have hardly missed any minute and it is not the entire truth, that Jürgen Klopp didn't want to keep me. He was just honest and said "If there is a team willing to get Nuri, this team can speak to him, I won't step in his way." because you couldn't expect that I come back from Rotterdam and directly become the most valuable player for Borussia. I came back with an injury and a bad rehab which was my fault because I didn't took it seriously enough since it was my first rehab. It was nonprofessional and I thought that I will become better after a few units of training. It didn't turned out that way and the coach wasn't happy about it. But he never told me that I had to leave. He said that I will get a fair chance like everbody else, I waited for this chance and looking back on it now, I think I can say that I did not throw it away
I've done what I wanted to do: I'm a starter. I've contributed my part for Dortmund becoming a constant again, I'm part of the team council, improved myself personally and did was Borussia Dortmund expected me to do.
schwatzgelb.de: Key players like Sebastian Kehl, Tamas Hajnal or Dede have been out for good due to injuries for a long time. How did the hierachies on the field develop during that time?
Nuri Sahin: They are all distinguished players who also are of big importance off the field. Especially Sebastian Kehl, our captain was there when we needed him and helped us where he had to. But on the field, we had to take care of ourselves and some of us tried to take a step forward. I was one of them and I also try to take this step forward today. It was an instructional time, I think, because during the time we missed important players, some young players stepped up. Mats, Neven, Kevin, Schmelle, Manni (Bender) and also myself, we really developed during that time. Suddenly, the whole attention turned to us, we played under a certain pressure and I think, everyone of us improved because of that.
schwatzgelb.de: Since the return of Sebastian Kehl, three players are available for the position in the defensive midfield: Sebastian Kehl, Sven Bender and you. How do you see the competition and would you for example swerve to the left or even forwards to the creative central?
Nuri Sahin: The coach decides, who is playing. I think that I did a good job on this position with the exception of the match against Mönchengladbach and that I am important for the team on this position. In our system, this position is perfect for me, but the coach is deciding and you have to respect that. The coach knows what is best for the team. I would never say that I need to play here or that I need to play there. I know about my strengths and where I could help the team, but the coach knows about it, too and so he is making the decisions.
I am someone who likes to come from the back, to get the ball early and to control the match, therefore, this position is fitting best. I can play the other three possible positions, too, but the position, that I am gladly and succesfully playing at the moment, is the defensive midfield-position.
schwatzgelb.de: It seemed that you play more defensive with Sebastian Kehl than you did with Sven Bender. Is there a change in tasks now?
Nuri Sahin: I'm not playing more defensive. Against Bochum, I participated in three goals so I can't really play that defensive. Perhaps, Kehl seems to be a little bit more offensive but we have more or less the same account of attacks. We change sometimes and complement each other very well. I also did that with Manni Bender and Manni attacked from time to time, too. There is no real task like "Kehl is playing more offensive and I am staying defensive" or vice-versa. You do that intuitively. Wenn Kehl attacks, I am staying and when I attack, Kehl is staying. Someone has to do it.
An as far as Sven goes, you have to see that he is able to play football very good and that he did that over the last time. Now he is coming back and that will be of importance for out team, too.
schwatzgelb.de: Could you also fill the rolemodel-position for young players like Mario Götze during the time that players like Sebastian Kehl were out?
Nuri Sahin: I think that you no longer need to talk with the young guys. I told them we will be there when they need anything, no matter if it is myself or Mats or Neven, we all have a certain experience right now. They appreciate that and and they are coming if they have any questions. But it isn't the way that we tell them "You have to do this" or "You have to do that", they have been educated so well that they know what this is about. They are all down-to-earth and you don't need to talk to them very much.
schwatzgelb.de: We are talking about your rolemodel-position for young players. How did other teammates like Giovanni van Bronckhorst, especially Tomas Rosicky or Sebastian Kehl, affect your career?
Nuri Sahin: Rosicky was the most skillfull teammate I had so far and I can hardly expect that I will play with a better player again. In my opinion, Tommy was simply world-class and if he didn't get injured, he would be at the top right now. I have learned from him very much, equal to what I learned from Christian Wörns, Sebastian Kehl, van Bronckhorst... I could name others for quite a time. They are all good players.
Michael Mols, with whom I played at Feyenoord, was my roommate. At the time, I was 18/19 years old, he was 37, but we clicked. From him, I learned how to play as a professional. I knew him from the TV before when he played for Glasgow Rangers against Galatasaray and I thought he was doing a great job. And then, I see him in front of me, simply a great guy with whom I still have good contact today. From him, I have learned very much and for example I learned from Christian Wörns how to live more professional and that you have to work to be respected. From Tommy, I got the brilliancy of how to shut down everything there is to shut down with one single pass. They are good examples.
schwatzgelb.de: When you became a pro, you weren't even 17 years old. I personally am hardly older and to see you play was unreal, since you were the first player at which I noticed "Damn, this player is younger than me!". You got good critics from all sides, Arsene Wenger amongst others. How do you handle this when you are a 16-year-old, when there is some kind of pressure coming from all sides?
Nuri Sahin: At the first moment, you think "Wow", "cool", "super", interviews with newspapers, everthing's fine. I remember the first time a newspaper brought an article about myself. That day, Salvatore Gambino said "There is an article about you in the newspaper today!". I didn't really believe it, but then he said "Go to the toilet, I have put your article there." I looked at it and I really liked to find a whole side about me. But I could always handle with it quite good. I never had that altitude flight you expect from a 16/17-year-old. It would be legitimate to have that flight, at that age, you suddenly are a "wonder kid". But when I watched football before, I dealed with that topic very much. How to give an interview? What do you say? How do you deal with criticism? I think that I could deal with it, even if I was very young.
Hearing good critics from great coaches is still great and those are great approvals. But I know that it could fire back on me and then had that little down, which I consider worthy now because it helped me to develop. But this hype didn't really change me.
Josef Schneck: Nuri, the first great hype came with the first trainingscamp in Turkey after you scored your first goal in Bundesliga and the first goal against Olli Kahn. Every Turkish journalist wanted to touch you, compared to that, the hype in Germany was nothing. It was incredible, you were the new national hero.
Nuri Sahin: Yeah, they were proud of myself. But in Turkey, when you are in the newspapers, you are respected. There a many more newspaper and you can't compare that to German press. If you are in the news everyday in Turkey and the people accept you, you are something like a star and you are carried on hands. You don't pay in restaurants or the taxi driver who should take much money from you because you earn much money, says "No, you will never pay me". In Turkey, the people live for it and they are great. But if it fires back on you, it can become really bad.
schwatzgelb.de: You stepped up during a time, Borussia financially stood short before the end. Isn't it like a dream for you players when now, it is finally possible to play international after you played three years in the midfield of the Bundesliga table and experience a nearly-relegation?
Nuri Sahin: I didn't think much about the finances, that was too far away for me. Of course, I noticed that the club isn't doing well but we concentrated on our sport. Unfortunately, it didn't go that good over the last years, but I think that the last two years are a good example to show that the club is rehabilitated financially and on the field. It's great to be on a rank that would allow us to qualify for Europe and I hope this will be the case after 34, too. It would be really, really great to develop for me, the young players and the club. Nothing is better for a football player that to play twice a week and to have awesome games who help you to improve. When I look at the Europe League this year, I only see well-known names who should play in the Champions League but they didn't have the luck to be in there this year. Liverpool is playing in Europe League, Valencia - all great clubs. I am really looking forward to it and I hope, that we will make it this year.
In tommorow's part two, we will talk to Nuri about comparisons to great players, his role as an integration figure and Dortmund chants.
Redaktion, 23.03.2010
