GLATZEL: MY NEW LIFE AS A BLUEBIRD
FIGHTING... FAITH... FATHERHOOD .... THE BLUEBIRDS’ NEW STRIKER ON THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY WHICH HAS LED HIM TO THE WELSH CAPITAL
FOR Robert Glatzel, it has been a long and arduous road from the streets of Munich to the glittering lights of the Championship.
He has faced times of doubt and uncertainty, but battled through to come out the other side. It is a road less travelled and one which, on more than one occasion, looked to be hurtling towards a dead end.
But over the course of our 45-minute conversation, one thing becomes abundantly clear – it was going to be his journey and no-one was going to tell him how to do it.
He is certainly sure of himself, unerringly confident in fact, but his bullishness is borne out of the misfortunes which have blighted his relatively short career to date.
“I’m never going to be too arrogant or cocky,” says the 25-year-old. “I know where I have come from.”
Growing up, his father, Ghermai, owned a computer shop in Munich, starting out by selling Windows 98. The Glatzel family boasted a handful of computers at home even before the turn of the millennium, which was far from commonplace at the time.
But while he might well have been the envy of all of his friends, it wasn’t the computers that interested him. It was always football.
In the early days of Ghermai’s shop, business was booming. But once the internet really took off and others caught up, the money dried up and Glatzel’s father and mother, a social worker for the council, were forced to downsize to a smaller apartment with their two children.
Though it was far from glamorous surroundings, Glatzel describes his childhood as ‘beautiful,’ filling his days by playing football in a small cage with his friends.
His father was a refugee from Eritrea, his parents sought a better life for him and his siblings in Europe and landed in Munich following some years in Italy.
And it is evident Ghermai was hellbent on carving out just as good a life for his own son.
Glatzel has a special relationship with his father, it is where he gets his burning passion for football. He was named Robert after Bob Marley, his dad’s favourite singer, and his music provided the soundtrack for Glatzel’s childhood.
But it is the love of football which has forged such a close bond between the two of them.
“The biggest relationship I have is with my father,” he says. “He is a massive football fan. He used to come to every game in Germany, every game.
“When I was younger, like 15, 16, 17, he would come to every training session, too.
“He did everything for me. Without him I wouldn’t be here today, so I have to thank him for everything. Not just driving me back and forth, it’s everything.
“We did so many training sessions together, just us two. We didn’t have a back garden, but we went outside and would kick a ball at the wall. He would teach me how to shoot.
“There were thousands of training sessions we would have and it just shows how much he supported me.
“He was a hard coach, but I am thankful for everything.”
Glatzel admits, at first, he couldn’t see why his father harboured such love for the game, but it was infectious and soon he was hooked. He idolised the likes of Ronaldinho and wanted to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
But there were hurdles he first had to leap. He acknowledges he was a bit of a tearaway in his youth. “I would fight with everybody and I was loud,” he says. But he is different now and credits football, and the challenges he has faced within the game, with that.
His first setback was when he was rejected from Bayern Munich’s youth system, a chastening blow for any aspiring footballer in the sporting heartland of Bavaria.
He then passed through a succession of clubs, Unterhaching, 1860 Munich, SV Heimstetten, Wacker Burghausen, all in the space of a couple of years.
It is around that turbulent time he found his faith. He was not raised in a Christian family, neither his mother nor his father aligned themselves strictly with a religion, but it was something he discovered on his own, gradually.
“It became something special in my life,” he says of his faith. “I don’t know why. I don’t really remember a moment, it just came.
“My father spoke to me a couple of times about God and religion, but it wasn’t really a big thing, it just happened for me.
“When football became more serious and life became more serious, it became more important to me.”
It gave him an inner strength and a grounding when things turned for the worse. It guided him through the difficult times, which, in the early stages of his career, were frequent.
On many occasions, it looked to be the end of the road. His mother, Sonja, pleaded with him to hang up his boots
and get a ‘real’ job, but it just made him more determined.
“It was very difficult,” he says. “I switched teams a lot from 18 to 22. And if you’re playing with such small teams, you don’t get so much money. I went through very difficult times.
“My mum wanted me to get a real job, but I had this dream and it was very hard to tell her I wanted to be a professional football player.
“At the age of 20, I was earning only EUR250 per month. Of course, you have some doubts and you think, ‘is this really worth it?’
“But that would just be for a couple of hours, then I would be back, really focused. They were difficult times, but they just made me more focused and more dedicated to fulfil my dream.
“So I am thankful for the difficult times as well.”
Fortunately for him, his father talked his mum around, such was his boundless belief in his son, and, finally, Glatzel caught a break.
He moved to Kaiserslautern, the first time he left Bavaria, and it was a total culture shock. In his own words, he knew he had to grow up.
For the first time in his career, at 21, he had a season which would make people sit up and take notice of him. He scored 27 goals in 47 games for Kaiserslautern’s reserves and suddenly it all clicked into place.
And it wasn’t just on the field he had to do the growing up. His wife, Natasa, whom he met in school when he was just 17, gave birth to their first daughter Elea and, just like that, he had a family for whom he had to provide.
It proved to be the greatest motivator and an even bigger learning curve. He was elevated to the senior team and signed his first professional contract at 22, which, by his own admission, makes him a late bloomer.
After two years there, he was on the move again, this time to Heidenheim, a club on the rise. Glatzel always harboured ambitions of playing in the Bundesliga and he thought this was his ticket there.
He wasn’t to know, however, that it would be a game against a club who once rejected him, that would catapult him into the spotlight.
He shot to fame last season after scoring a hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the DFB-Pokal and gained overnight fame in Germany.
“Everybody texted me,” he remembers fondly. “I got like 300 text messages on WhatsApp, Instagram, everything. But I didn’t allow it to go to my head too much.
“The next two weeks, everyone talked about it. If anyone saw me they were talking about it.
“The next matches, other teams and other opponents were congratulating me, saying ‘hey, that was great,’ even when I was playing against them!
“If you are a kid growing up in Munich, it’s the biggest club in Germany, not only Munich. I watched every game of theirs, Champions League, Bundesliga, I knew everyone in their team. They were world stars.
“But scoring against them was the perfect scenario. I will never forget it.”
Heidenheim finished fifth in the Bundesliga Division 2 last season and appeared to be on the cusp of breaking into the big time, sooner rather than later.
He scored 17 goals in 29 games last season and ears were pricking up all across Europe. But it presented Glatzel with a big decision.
Once offers started to flood in, however, he knew better opportunities lay elsewhere. He was sounded out by a few teams in the Bundesliga, but it was in the Championship where concrete offers were being tabled and the prospect of Premier League football seemed the most appealing.
Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman spoke with him on the phone and, for Glatzel, the decision was easy.
It’s fair to say it has been an OK start for the No.9, but he will say as much himself. “I know I can be better,” he admits. “That’s my goal, to be better for my team.
“I’m not satisfied. I want to score more goals, but at the same time, I have played six games and playing in another country is difficult.
“It’s not like you’re just going to come here and everything will be perfect. But I know I can be better and that is my goal.”
Of course, it is a big change, both culturally and professionally, for a man who has known only German football up until two months ago.
But things are just starting to fall into place for the big German.
He scored his first goal from the penalty spot against Derby County, his wife, Natasa, and two daughters, the youngest of whom, Alicia, turns one next week, have moved over and he generally feels more settled in his new surroundings.
He is grateful for how welcoming the Cardiff players have been – he has struck up a little friendship with Omar Bogle – and for the time Neil Warnock has dedicated to his development, showing video clips of things on which he can improve.
He admits, though, the difference between German football and British football has been quite the eye-opener.
“It’s very different,” he continues. “I can’t even say one thing is similar to German football. It’s completely different.
“It’s more physical, more long balls, but in Germany it is the opposite. It’s more tactical, the passing is better.
“But in Cardiff, they are more athletic, the wingers are so quick and good at dribbling, you don’t see that too much in Germany.
“The midfielders play so well in Germany, it’s just so different.”
It begs the question, then, does this type of football suit him?
“It’s hard to tell,” he replies. “Both can suit me.
“When I played my first few games in the second division in Germany, not everything went perfectly. But I think I can adapt to anything, so I am sure I can do good things here as well.”
While Warnock has praised him highly this season, there have been murmurs from some sections of the Bluebirds’ fanbase that other strikers waiting in the wings should be given a go.
Of course, it all comes with the responsibility of being the marquee summer signing and wearing the No.9 shirt for a club as big as the Bluebirds.
But Glatzel, battle-hardened from the years of hardship in his early career, is as headstrong as ever in his response to those suggestions.
“I don’t feel pressure,” he says, firmly. “The only pressure is when you have pressure on yourself, to do your best, not outside pressure.
“I don’t care what anybody says about me. I want to do the best for myself, I am my biggest critic.”
Of course, you have doubts. But that would be for just of couple of hours, then I would be back, really focused Robert Glatzel