Podolski: "It was a perfect day!"

Team jester, cult figure, world-class player – “boring” is one thing that Lukas Podolski definitely isn’t. And at this European Championship, he’s fast achieving untouchable status, especially after winning – as only the 10th player in DFB history – his 100th cap for Germany in last Sunday’s match against Denmark, a remarkable occasion he crowned by bringing his personal goal tally up to 44. Here’s what the 27-year-old Germany forward told DFB.de writer Steffen Lüdeke about his record, his personal development, and his views on EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

DFB.de: Lukas, in the morning on match day, you had a long chat with the head coach. What did you talk about?

Lukas Podolski: Nothing special and, before you ask, NOT about me winning my 100th cap! He just gave me instruction for the match and told me what was going to be expected of me.

DFB.de: Scoring in one’s 100th match for Germany – is there a better way to celebrate?

Podolski: Not that I know! I am very happy and proud, because to be honest I wouldn’t have thought I’d ever get that far. We won, I scored – a perfect day.

DFB.de: During the game, did you pay attention to what was going on at the other group match between Holland and Portugal? And did it worry you when Cristiano Ronaldo scored tro make it 2-1?

Podolski: I didn’t even register what was going on in Kharkiv. We were clearly focused on our own game. We wanted to win and blanked out anything else. We’re not geared to fret and worry about results in other stadiums. So, frankly, I simply didn’t care about any interim results elsewhere.

DFB.de: Can you take us on a trip down memory lane? How and when did it all begin?

Podolski: I was at training camp with the Under-21s and Uli Stielike, our coach at the time, called me and Bastian (Schweinsteiger) to tell us Rudi Völler wanted to have a word… - the rest, as they say, is history.

DFB.de: Eight years have passed since then. Would you say you’ve changed?

Podolski: Well, the game has changed, and I with it! The football we’re playing now is worlds apart from 2004; today everything’s faster, we’re playing a different system, I have different tasks on the pitch, the whole approach to preparation and post-match regeneration has changed.

DFB.de: And Lukas Podolski the man?

Podolski: Of course! I mean I wasn’t even 20 at the time, and at that age you have a completely different outlook to life. Now I have a family, and being a dad makes you a more mature person. But my character as such definitely hasn’t changed!

DFB.de: You always come across as relaxed and untroubled. How have you managed to stay that way, despite going through difficult stages in your career, with defeats, relegations, criticism in the media, and plenty of other negatives along the way?

Podolski: That’s life - there are good and bad stretches. You’ve got to learn to take things in your stride. But all in all, staying the way I am wasn’t so hard. I think I’ve become more professional in many respects, but my core personality has remained the same. The key thing is to feel at home with yourself.

DFB.de: What has changed are head coaches’ names – how did Völler, Klinsmann, and Löw deal with you?

Podolski: I can’t really say that much about Rudi Völler, because Jürgen Klinsmann took over right after EURO 2004, just to leave again after the 2006 World Cup. So the coach I grew up with, if you like, has been Joachim Löw. We’ve known each other for six, seven years now. He’s taught me a lot about the game, and I think there’s a good chemistry between us.

DFB.de: Do you also talk about private issues?

Podolski: Not really. Sporting matters come first, after all the point of us being here is to play successful football. But sometimes he does want to know how my family are doing, whether everything’s okay at home.

DFB.de: Having scored your 44th goal in the national team shirt, you’ve overtaken Uwe Seeler. You met after the game; what did you talk about?

Podolski: We didn’t talk a lot, but he came over to hug and congratulate me – a great gesture from a true legend. It made me very proud.

DFB.de: Adding up all the days that you have physically spent with the national team, we arrive at an almost unbelievable 18 months. How are you getting on with your team mates and the backroom staff?

Podolski: What, only 18 months? I thought it was much longer than that! (laughs) Let me say we’re like family. In a way, I was fortunate to have received so many call-ups, not least because I was hardly ever seriously injured. So I was privileged to experience many tournaments and many highlights. Sharing beautiful, sometimes even unforgettable moments welds people together.

DFB.de: FC Bergheim’s promotion; 10,000 spectators at Germany’s public training session in Gdansk giving you a birthday serenade; scoring a goal in your 100th international match – that’s as good as it gets…

Podolski: Yes, the people here in Poland are close to my heart, and listening to thousands of people singing ‘Sto Lat’ (one hundred years) was fantastic. And it was great to see “my“ youth team promoted.

DFB.de: Isn’t it all the more regrettable, therefore, that Poland have been eliminated from the tournament so early?

Podolski: Yes, it’s disappointing. I had hoped that the excitement of hosting the tournament would somehow lift the home team beyond the group stage, as was the case at previous Euros. And I think they had a really good chance, playing to your own crowd, with a team featuring quite a number of good players… I would have loved to play against Poland in the quarter-final match here in Gdansk, but obviously it was not to be. I feel really sorry for the players. In terms of hosting EURO 2012, I think Poland is doing a wonderful job, the hospitality is fantastic, the organisation couldn’t be any better, and the stadiums are excellent. I hope that, early elimination apart, Polish football will benefit from the event in the long run.

DFB.de: Have you been in touch with some of your relatives here in Poland?

Podolski: Yes, of course, also to Polish players. They’re all so disillusioned! But what can you do? It’s over, and they have nobody else to blame but themselves. It’ll take the players a few days to realise just what they’ve missed out on. But I’m too much of an outsider to even attempt to analyse what went wrong, and why. The good news is – Germany are through, and I’m happy about that. Three wins from as many matches, that’s a first for us!

DFB.de: For a change, Germany won’t have to travel far, with the quarter-final match taking place practically on your doorstep…

Podolski: Yes, at last! We’ve seen enough of Ukraine for the time being (laughs). We’d love to return for the final, though.

DFB.de: The opponents in Gdansk are going to be Greece, whose reputation as the Masters of Defense precedes them…

Podolski: Yes, they’re definitely no push-overs. They’ve beaten the Russians, that says it all. We’ll have our work cut out for us trying to go forward and get into finishing positions. I’m quite sure they’ll give us run for our money, they’re likely to sit very deep and we’ll have to find the right response to that.