Arsenal Podcast: “Lukas Podolski bought time on his international career by scoring the winning goal against England last week. Here is Per Mertesacker talking about his time playing alongside Poldi.”

Per: “It is how it is, he is one of a kind, I would say. And, it’s how it’s supposed to end for him and I’m very grateful we spent a lot of time together with Germany plus at the club, you know, and I think we’ve had a great time together and shared some emotional and great moments. So I’m grateful for him. I think it’s gonna be tough for all of us, you know, for the kind of the generation that has kind of left now, who joined in 2004, the national team, so, yeah, almost 13… 12, 13 years ago… To reflect and look back what has actually happened, that is something he has to go through, myself, a few others. And it’s gonna be interesting, you know, to meet one day and to speak about all the great tournaments we played in that spell of ten years, reached at least the semi finals. And with the ending of my career and a couple of others, with winning the title, he extended this for another two years to that… It’s gonna be interesting, you know, to see what it’s like, to meet one day and think about all we’ve done together, what’s gonna be. But the ending, I’m just happy for him, that he’s healthy and his family.”

Arsenal Podcast: “Did you… Am I right when I’m thinking that you lived in a house with him in Brazil?”

Per: “Yes, six of us, six. So we were divided into four houses, so there were just six of us. That was great, you know. To get that team spirit.”

Arsenal Podcast: “What is it that makes him so unique? Because everyone talks about this Poldi way.”

Per: “Uhm… I think he’s like… He’s got that… His joy, the joy of the game has never left him as a person, so he would always go onto the pitch, the first shot would hit top corner, with his left foot power. That is how he approached the game, he wants to have fun, he wants to just enjoy himself. And he’s every day in the same good positive spot and that is something we won’t find a lot. Kind of that consistency every single day, you know, he wants to, he’s in that positive mindset, and goes to the pitch and knows he’s gonna hit that with his left foot in the top corner, full power. And that means, you know, he is not scared about anything, he’s not… He doesn’t care about what could happen without warming up, you know, my… No, he’s just, he wanna have that fun and that made him special for any teams, I think, looking back and he had… He put that great talent into a great footballer, you know, and that’s something what helped him on the way, that he never… All the attention, you know, he gained, or he raised with all his talent… And he’s never forgotten where he was born, what’s his passion and it’s all about football. So those are the keywords, I think, for him, that he’s had such a great career. And it’s difficult, you know? When he steps on the pitch he’s focussed, he’s not caring what could happen in two minutes, five minutes, just thinking about the moment, because football is very distractive and one thing he always kept in mind is, the pitch is the most important thing, I wanna have fun, I want to have a real strike into that goal, that was always his aim, you know. And he didn’t think about what’s in the next two minutes, or when will that goal happen* with my person - never! And that is something very helpful in football business nowadays. That’s why he survived and that [he had] success.”