Andreas Voglsammer: "The best thing is, you're at 120 percent"

Created: 01/05/2022, 07:30 AM

From: Dieter Priglmeir

Hit in Dortmund: Erling Haaland can only watch as Andreas Voglsammer wins the header duel against Thomas Meunier and scores the next goal.

In the end, Union lost 2: 4.

© Sven Simon via www.imago-images.de

The football professional Andreas Voglsammer from Dorfen speaks about his joker role at Union Berlin and the past and new Bundesliga year.

Dorfen / Bielefeld

- Yes, is the Bundesliga again? On Saturday, Andreas Voglsammer will start next year in the highest German league. In 2020, the Dorfener was promoted with Arminia Bielefeld, with whom he managed to stay in the league last season. After a protracted calf injury, he was fully there at the end of the season and also scored his first Bundesliga goal at 1-1 in Mainz. In the summer, Voglsammer left East Westphalia after five years and moved to Union Berlin, where he played all 17 first legs. However, he was only in the starting line-up once - against his ex-club Bielefeld, of all places. But the striker was also always there from the bench, scoring the 2: 3 goal in Dortmund, for example. As a goal scorer, he also shone in other competitions: in the 3-1 victory in the DFB Cup against Waldhof Mannheim and in the 3:0 success against Maccabi Haifa in the Conference Cup. How did he see the past year, and how does it go this year with Union, which will compete on Saturday at Bayer Leverkusen, who are only one point better in the table, and who would even be in the Champions League with a win? We spoke to the man from Dorfen, who is celebrating his 30th birthday on Sunday.

Mr. Voglsammer, how was the short holiday at Christmas at home?

Very good, very relaxing.

That was really important too.

The past year with so many trips was very exhausting, I'm not used to that.

But now it starts again.

And that means: full concentration on the tasks ahead.

And I think we all made good use of the time.

Brief review of 2021: What was the best moment of the year?

Oh, that's really hard.

My first Bundesliga goal was something special.

The fact that we were able to keep the class in Bielefeld was also a special moment because nobody believed it would be there.

But the international games with Union in Finland, Israel, the Czech Republic or at Feyenoord Rotterdam were also something special.

That was really cool.

The atmosphere there was simply impressive.

Deciding on the best moment is really difficult, but it was probably the first Bundesliga goal after all.

And what are you not fond of remembering?

The early days in the Bundesliga with my calf injury was of course not that easy.

But I got out of there well.

Since then, thank God I have been spared injuries.

From Bielefeld to Berlin - after five months you can already draw a small interim balance.

What's better where?

The quality is a bit higher here in Berlin.

And the city itself is of course something completely different.

In the Conference League, Voglsammer celebrates the opening goal in the 3-0 win against Maccabi Haifa.

Union is still eliminated in the group stage, but is only one point behind the Champions League places in the Bundesliga.

© Imago / Koch

You have played all 17 first legs, but only one in the starting line-up - do you feel comfortable in the Joker role?

Of course, as a competitive athlete and professional footballer, you want to play every game right from the start.

But you always have to see how your competitors are performing in your position.

And they did a great job.

So, on the whole, I had no choice but to just keep accelerating and try to push the guys from behind.

What is different when you come into the game while the others have already had an hour in your bones, but you yourself have to go from 0 to 100 immediately?

You have to work immediately because the teams are already fully involved.

The quarter of an hour start-up time and sampling that the games often have is long gone by the others.

So there is no such thing when you come in.

You have to be there immediately.

Best of all, you're at 120 percent.

Overall, I think I played the role quite well.

New year, new luck - what are your plans for 2022?

The most important thing during these difficult times is to stay healthy.

I hope that I can get through without injuries and that we will get as many points as possible.

I want to get as much time as possible to show myself so that the coach has a hard time not lining me up.

Everything else comes by itself.

Where will the Union be at the end of the season?

It's not that easy to say, the league is still relatively close together.

We look from game to game and try to win each one.

Then we can sit down again after matchday 34 to see what came out of it.