It is still so unbelievable for me. We dreamt of qualifying for the UEFA Cup and had a great team. And then…

In the summer of 2006, I belonged to the second (pro) team of the VfB. Armin Veh coached the VfB and promoted me to the first team in October. My first match appearance, which was literally only about 30 seconds, was against Hertha BSC. In the next match against Bayer Leverkusen I was already a starter and we won 3:0. From that day I was one of them. The great thing about this team was our team spirit. There were certainly better teams with better players, but we were all united on the pitch. Fernando Meira helped me a lot which also prepared me for professional soccer in general. The 2:2 draw in the last game against Bayern Munich, where I was able to score our equalising goal, created a real earthquake in the area of Stuttgart and throughout Swabia. That’s how I imagine the lift-off of an Ariane 5 rocket…