Bundesliga Brits

Chelsea youth team product Michael Mancienne is making an unusual career move: moving from his native England to ply his trade in Germany.

Mancienne will become only the second English player in the history of his new club Hamburg, and as such, he's got some big shoes to fill. He'd be well advised to start by making a beeline for the nearest salon and requesting the most outrageous perm money can buy, otherwise any impersonation of former England international striker Kevin Keegan is doomed to failure. (Besides, a perm wouldn't be that big a change from Mancienne's current corn-rowed 'do.)

Very few English footballers have taken their chance in the Bundesliga, but Deutsche Welle caught up with one who came over to Cologne from Brian Clough's legendary Nottingham Forest, and then returned home to play with Arsenal in London.

Tony Woodcock played three seasons with FC Cologne in his prime, scoring 28 goals, and he liked it so much that he went back in 1986 to play in the same western German city for four more years before hanging up his boots. The England international striker also played 42 games for his country, even scoring a late winner at Wembley against his Cologne teammates and Germany nemeses in 1982.

Deutsche Welle: What were your experiences like in the Bundesliga back in 1979 when you moved across to FC Cologne?

Tony Woodcock: It's quite a few years ago, but then it wasn't the normal thing for English players - or virtually any European players - to be moving abroad. So that was the first thing to overcome, the very idea of being there. Kevin Keegan making such a similar move one year prior obviously helped.

The second thing is obviously the language - you have to get used to it and fight your way through that. The different training system was a challenge too. I was used to playing two or three games per week, but wasn't used to training every day; it took my body a while to get used to that. And, as we all know, in the earlier days clubs were only allowed two foreign players, so there was a lot of pressure on foreign players to be better than the homegrown players. That's changed slightly now, but still, there are a lot of eyes on the foreign players; you have to do well, you're slightly different.

Were the FC Cologne fans supportive when you moved over?

They've always been fantastic towards me. There's a lot of expectation - particularly if you cost a lot of money and you're coming to a top-class German outfit - but I think they can see if you have the right attitude. All you can offer is a desire to win the game, hard work for the full 90 minutes; you do everything you can for the club and I think they can see that. They've been great to me, even today when I go back to Cologne it's still fantastic. There are a lot of memories of some good times, they're passionate fans and if you give all you have, they will treat you well.

Everyone has their reasons for transferring clubs, but what was your motivation for moving to Germany, and why Germany?

Quite honestly, we'd won most things as a team with Nottingham Forest, I'd got quite a few individual awards and it was obviously the next progression. I was being offered a very good contract to move either to Spain, Italy or Germany. I had a choice of a number of clubs, and I chose Germany because the Bundesliga at the time was possibly the strongest league in the world with the best players in the world. So you want to prove yourself and see if you're up to competing at the highest level.

Also, I was playing for my home club, Nottingham Forest, where I was born. I think it's no secret that when you're brought up through the ranks at a club, your status is not as high as if you were bought in from elsewhere - I think that's still the case today. So there were a number of factors pushing me to try my luck abroad. I saw it as a way of progressing, both as a player and a person.

You returned to play with Arsenal in England in 1982 so you could keep your spot in the England squad. Did you ever play Germany, against some of your Cologne colleagues?

Yeah, there was one at Wembley in '82 where there were six Cologne players in the opposite changing room. In fact, as we arrived at the stadium, they grabbed me and dragged me into the dressing room and said I should be getting changed in there with them! I was on the bench that night, but went on with about 10 or 15 minutes to go, when Cologne's [Harald] "Toni" Schumacher was in goal. He put his gloves over my face before a corner, and said: 'Look, there's a hundred Deutschmarks if you ever score past me.' Well, from that corner I got the goal that made it 2-1. So there was a bit of banter going on.

And you made a bit of cash out of it too, well done!

I don't think he's ever paid me to be quite honest, so I ought to get back onto him about that!

So, what tips or advice would you offer young Michael Mancienne, who's making his move to Germany in a different stage of his career than you did, before he's proven his value as a regular top flight player?

Well, it's quite simple really. Go there with an open mind, take everything you see and hear in, learn the language, work hard, train hard, fit in with the rest of the players, want to win for the club and give everything you've got. It's as simple as that.

Interviewer: Catherine Bolsover
Editor: Matt Hermann