In the spring and summer of last year, a number of Werkself players similarly made the day of children at the Bayer 04 Soccer School. This time it was Nadiem Amiri who was happy to field a host of questions from the curious children and teenagers.
90 children came together after lunch and a stadium tour in the press conference room at the BayArena and eagerly awaited the arrival of the midfielder. There was huge applause when Amiri entered the room. The vocal welcome was followed by plenty of questions. The 6- to 14-year-olds questions included: "When did you start playing football?," "Who is your favourite player?," What's a day in the life of a professional footballer like?" Amiri revealed that his favourite game in a black and red shirt was the 4-3 home win against Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga in the 2019/20 season where he set up two goals.
One of the children wanted to know what Amiri was thinking when he made his Bundesliga debut. The answer from the 25-year-old midfielder: "It was one of the best days of my life. I always wanted to be a professional football player and I'm grateful for that every day. I came onto the pitch back then in the game against VfL Wolfsburg and I was thrown into the deep end straightaway because it felt like I only got to know about it 30 minutes earlier." The question about who he gets on best within the team set our number 11 thinking: "I actually got on very well with everybody." He added: "But I've known Kerem (Demirbay, ed), Karim (Bellarabi,ed) and Jonathan (Tah, ed), the longest – and I can speak German to them and that's not bad either. (He laughs)"
Following the round of questions there was obviously time for lots of autographs and photos. The 25-year-old Werkself midfielder signed shirts, shorts and boots and also mobile phone cases. After a group photograph, Amiri headed off to training leaving behind a roomful of beaming and clearly happy youngsters in the press conference room at the BayArena. The children then had another training session.
The Werkself have reached at least the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal in each of the last three years. The Black-and-Reds would like to make it to the final four of the competition again this season, but to do that they'll need to overcome 1. FC Nürnberg in round two, who travel to the BayArena with momentum following a successful league campaign so far. However, Bayer have a 100 percent record at home in all competitions this season - and have also won six of their last seven home matches in the Pokal. The Matchday News.
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