HE’S SUMMIT SPECIAL
Werner raced up mountains to keep sharp and the speed machine relishes taking on giant Van Dijk to help Chelsea reach their peak
AS A child he built up his endurance by powering up mountains.
Now Timo Werner, in his new role as Chelsea striker, is primed to come up against £75million man-mountain Virgil van Dijk.
Liverpool’s Dutch defender made two mistakes leading to goals in his last four Premier Leagues games. In his previous 154 matches, Van Dijk was culpable just once.
It sets up a fascinating subplot between the German speedster - who clocked 11.11sec for the 100metres as a teenager - and the Anfield colossus whose leadership was pivotal to their first title in 30 years last season.
“The last time I ran 11.11 I was 15 or 16 so hopefully I’m a bit faster,” said Werner. “My dad always wanted me to be faster and he wanted to give me strength in my muscles.
“He let me run up some hills and it helped me a lot. It taught me you have to work hard, and the strength and fitness in the games doesn’t come from doing nothing. It wasn’t the hills that gave me my speed, it was me thinking about how you have to train and work hard and be fit enough to go past defenders.”
Nicknamed Turbo, Werner’s ability to leave defenders for dead helped him to amass 34 goals in 45 games last season for RB Leipzig.
“I was a little bit surprised but Turbo Timo is not the worst nickname,” he said. “Hopefully I can show the nickname suits me.
“Being fast is a really good thing for me as it gives me a lot of opportunities to score goals.
“It means I can create chances. It’s a nickname I can hold and maybe people can say Turbo Timo scores a lot of goals.
“It was the right time to say, ‘OK, I want to try something new, out of Germany. I want to go to the Premier League’.”
Werner is relishing the challenge of “a lot of massive, strong defenders” he will come against in the English top flight, feeling it will improve his game.
He added: “I made steps coming from Stuttgart. I got to the first team, then went to Leipzig, played for Leipzig for four years, played in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
“This was a really good experience and now I want a new way to grow, to give my game some parts of English football.
“When I get the strengths of English football I’ll get more possibilities, more options, ons, in my game to do different ent things.”
Werner, courted by Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp prior to his Chelsea, a, paid tribute to his former Leipzig eipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann, for the improvements in his game that lifted him to elite level. .
“I don’t want to speak eak about other clubs,” he said. aid. “But Nagelsmann gave me ea a lot of opportunities and new w ways to go in different situations ons when other teams stay deep and there is not so much space.”
The 24-year-old has as come a long way since the days s when his father, Gunther, give him im money if he scored goals as a child. Now it is Chelsea giving him m a huge f inancial incentive to keep finding the net.
“For every goal he didn’t give me much,” laughed Werner. “It was for me to say, ‘ OK if I score 10 goals today I’ ll have 10 euros’. It could buy me a lot of candy.
“It made me want to score goals, and I love scoring goals.”