meet Dan Twardzik
In this weeks redmatchday magazine issue 17 :
Main feature: DAN TWARDZIK
“I was born in the Czech Republic, but we moved to Germany in 1999 when I was eight years old.
“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”.
“I played youth internationals for Germany – 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!
Also in issue 17 all the usual features, articles and columns from all our football correspondents.
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