redmatchday interview

DAN TWARDZIK

Making a career in professional football is a tough old job at the best of times, but if you’re a goalkeeper, it’s harder still. There is only one position in the team to aim for – unless you’re Josh Magennis that is – and given the longevity of many goalkeepers, once a number one is in situ, he might well be there for a very long time indeed. So it is that a young goalkeeper has to master the twin, if conflicting arts, of patience and ambition in the search for that first team break.

The latest recruit to Jim Leighton’s Goalkeeping Finishing School is Dan Twardzik, a youngster who was born in the Czech Republic but who has already played football in Germany and Italy before settling here at Pittodrie during the recent transfer window. He is well versed in the difficulties that a goalkeeper faces but at the grand old age of 21, he is developing the phlegmatic state of mind that every shot stopper needs if he isn’t going to go mad. That said, he should know all about the ups and downs that go hand in hand, or glove in glove, with the profession he’s chosen. After all, his dad was a goalkeeper too.

“I was born in the Czech Republic, but we moved to Germany in 1999 when I was eight years old. I enjoyed my time in the Czech Republic, we lived in the east of the country, very near the borders with Slovakia and Poland. I spent most of my time with my grandparents, it was a very happy time. It was a small village so we could play a lot of football, do any sports that we wanted, because it was very quiet there. We tried every sport, tennis, hockey, all sports. I think I was good at those too! Actually, my favourite was table tennis, I liked that a lot, and when I moved to Germany, I tried to do it as a second sport after football. I was in a team, did a lot of practice and it is very good for your reactions, your reflexes, so I think it helped with my goalkeeping.

“When I was eight, my father moved to Germany because of his work, and I think that it was a good move for everybody because there is a good standard of living in Germany, it is a strong economy, so it helped us as a family to be there.

“My dad was a goalkeeper, he moved to FC Sachsen Leipzig to play in the Third Division there, and he had a very good season there. He was hopeful that a bigger club would come and buy him from there and there was a lot of interest from the Bundesliga, but unfortunately the transfer did not happen”.

The Twardziks are a footballing family, because Dan is not the only offspring to make it to the SPL as he points out.

“I have twin brothers, Filip and Patrik, and they are both in Glasgow now, with Celtic. I tried to keep in very close contact with them when I was back home because I think it is very easy to lose contact with people when you are far away, so I make a big effort to stay close to them at this time. I hope it is easier now that we are all in the same country! There was a long time where we only saw each other two or three times a year.

“That is one of the hard things about being a professional footballer, you have to move around a lot, from city to city, or to a different country, so you do miss your family. But it is important to be professional, to cope with these things. A lot of players get homesick, but I think I learnt a lot from seeing my dad have to go through these things, so when I became a professional, I knew what to expect, I understood the situation. I don’t get homesick, so I think I had great schooling from my parents!”

If moving to Germany was beneficial for the family in an economic sense, it also widened Dan’s footballing horizons. Going into the family business was always likely for him from a young age when he got used to going to games and seeing just what a life in football really entails – and believe me, it’s not all glamour.

“When I grew up, I just supported whatever team my father played for! I really did not want to copy anybody, not even my dad, so I have always thought more about my own game than about watching other players. I went with him to Sachsen Leipzig as a boy, that was my first official club, then when my dad moved to Erfurt, I went with him and from there, I was spotted by Bayern Munich and I went there to play instead.

“It was a big thing to join the club because they only offer 13 places for boys outside of the Munich area to join their youth teams, so just to have the chance to go there was a big achievement. To be there as a young boy was an incredible experience and I had a very good three years in Munich. It gives you a chance to see what football at the very top level is about, it was a great chance to see how they prepare for matches, how they have very high standards and to see what it is you have to do to be a top player. It was a great time in my life.

“Bernd Dreher was the goalkeeping coach, he is at Schalke now, and he was like their third choice goalkeeper but mainly the coach. We trained together most days unless Oliver Kahn needed to have a session with him on his own for whatever reason. Oliver was a lovely guy, nothing like the crazy man you sometimes see on the field. He has such a strong mentality and when he plays, it is like that is his whole life. He was very helpful to the young goalkeepers”.

Sadly, like so many young footballers at the very big clubs around the world, at a certain age, Dan ran into a brick wall as far as progressing through the ranks was concerned – Kahn was replaced by Manuel Neuer at Bayern, so you can see the scale of the competition he was facing. After a while, I needed to go away from Bayern Munich to get more opportunities so I went and joined fellow German side Karlsruhe.

“I played youth internationals for Germany too – my brothers play for the Czech Republic, and I still have that option too. It is a little bit confusing, but I have a German passport because when I was called in by the under 15s, the Czech Republic didn’t call me up, so it was an easy decision then!

“In Germany the scouting starts from under 15s to under 19s – and it was a very good standard, I was with a goalkeeper called Bjorn Bussmann who was at Blackburn Rovers for a while, there was another goalkeeper who was playing for Schalke, so there were a lot of good players then. After the under 19s, I wasn’t called up any more, maybe because I wasn’t so tall as the other goalkeepers. Since I was 18, I have been 1.83m tall and I have stayed that way”.

Dan moved on to sample life in Italy with Calcio Como, a situation that he found very different to the one he left behind in Germany.

“In Italy, they have a very different mentality to life. In Germany, it is very strict, very disciplined, if you have a meeting, you will be there on time, but it is not the same in Italy! One time, they called me in to see someone at one o’clock, and they arrived 90 minutes later, so you have to try to adapt to that and it is not easy! It is not about being lazy, but it is laid back, they don’t like it being hectic, don’t worry about things! I think the standard of football in Italy has fallen in recent years, it is not what it was. Last year, in Serie C where I was, the standard was better than this year. You see AC Milan, they sell a lot of players, they are cutting their budget, because the world financial crisis, you really feel it in Italy and it is making a difference to everything there.

“Right now, I think the Bundesliga is a very good standard. I would say that maybe the Premier League in England is the best league, but I think the Bundesliga is maybe the second one right now. It is not like in Spain where there are just two teams, there are six or seven who could play at a high level in the Champions League. Maybe that is because of economics too, that German football is so strong.

“I think the standard of goalkeeping there is very high too. It is hard to say who is the best goalkeeper in the world right now. I like Casillas, but at this moment he is maybe not the best, I would say that it is Manuel Neuer now, he is the most complete goalkeeper I think. Everybody makes mistakes but he is very consistent, he has good reactions, he uses the ball very well, he is in charge of his defenders”.

Dan spent a week at Pittodrie earlier in the season and was delighted to come back in January and make a permanent move to Aberdeen. It turns out that somebody here already know a lot about him.

“Jim Leighton says that he saw my team play in a junior cup final for Bayern Munich when I was 17 – I cannot even remember the game or who we played against! It is great to work with him, he is a good guy and I think we will work well together. Jamie is a very good goalkeeper and I think that already, we are a good working group.

“I think this is how it must be with goalkeepers because we are a different group from the rest of the team, we must work as a unit in training, and we must support each other. If a goalkeeper makes a mistake, most times it is a goal, so you must be mentally strong and you must give each other support because we all know how it feels, we all know how hard it is to deal with. So you must have respect for each other, you must support each other, even though you are competing for the same place in the team.

“The dressing room is good here too, but it is very difficult for me to understand everything because when they talk to each other, it is very fast and the Scottish accent is not the easiest one! But when they speak to me, they try to speak slow and clear so that is ok, I can understand that. My English is quite good, but I hope it improves while I am here.

“I think it is a very good mix of personalities and of ages at Aberdeen. This is a very good place for young players to be, there are opportunities to play here and I think because of this, the team will get better and better in the next seasons as those young players get more games.

“I have had many experiences, good and bad, and been to many places already, and I am still only 21. But it is hard when you are young because you want to play, you don’t want to have to wait for your chance. I want to be playing every week, so when there is only one position in the team and you are young, it is hard to deal with this.

“I think it is maybe better to see the bad things this early in your career when there is still a lot of time ahead of me than for them to happen in a few years time! It is good for your character and education. And being a goalkeeper, your career can be very long, I can maybe have nearly 20 more years if I’m lucky”