Julian Draxler: ‘Start the season well’

Julian, how was this first training session yesterday, which was long and hard in the heat and the humidity…
“It was a hard first session. Some of the players hadn’t slept much and were a bit tired, but we’re in preseason and you have to do what the coach wants us to do. The session was good but hard. Everybody did their best and even if it was one and a half hours of focus and hard work, I think we did quite well.”

The Chinese fans are happy to see the team and we can see that they appreciate you a lot too.
“Obviously yes, they appreciate me. It’s funny because when we arrived, I saw some fans that I remember from when I first visited China with my former club and then again last year with Paris Saint-Germain, so I recognise them now. Either way I’m very happy to have so many fans here and I really appreciate it.”

Tomorrow we head to Macau and a match against Inter Milan, an important match during the preparation of the new season…
“Inter Milan are a great opponent. I played them a few years ago in the Champions League. It will be a prestigious match and we want to win the game, like Inter Milan. When you play a game like this, you want to know your level, where you’re at, so we will do our best and try to win on the pitch.”

Preseason is also about living together, bonding as a team with the new players…
“It’s going well so far but there are still some players missing, like the guys that played in the Copa America or Choupo who played in the AFCON with Cameroon, for example. The whole squad is not together, but I think it’s good to involve the new guys already so that when the others arrive, the new players are already integrated. But it’s really easy because Ander Herrera and Pablo Sarabia are both really nice guys and so are the two young guys, Marcin Bulka and Mitchel Bakker, so it’s not going to be a problem to integrate them in the squad.”

And there’s also the Trophée des Champions against Rennes and the chance to get some revenge for the Coupe de France loss last season…
“I wouldn’t say it’s revenge. Obviously, it hurts that we lost that final last season but I think this is more about the start of a new season and we want to start the season with a new trophy. Unfortunately, I am suspended because I got a yellow card in the final game of last season, but we will be here to win it, to prepare for the new season and to take home that first trophy of the campaign.”