“MY PENALTY MISS IN THE SHOOTOUT AGAIN ST CHELSEA IN 2012 HURTS TO THIS DAY – I CAN NEVER FORGET IT”

You signed for Bayern Munich in 2009 but faced big competition upfront with Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni in the squad. Was it hard to break into the team?

Definitely. After I arrived from Hamburg, the coach who signed me, Jupp Heynckes, soon left and his replacement, Louis van Gaal, said I wasn’t in his plans. At the start I was often sat on the bench, but after a few weeks Louis could see how hard I trained and how much I cared about the team. It helped that I was at the peak of my career. He told me that if I continued to practise well, I’d get chances. At first I thought he was just saying