Pizarro scored his 101st Bundesliga goal for Werder Bremen at the weekend against Mainz, the second player in the club’s history to reach this number after Marco Bode. WERDER.DE brought the two goalscorers together for an interview to talk about the record being broken, being the only two to have achieved such a thing and the Peruvian’s ability.
WERDER.DE: It’s been a turbulent few weeks for you, Claudio. You’ve scored six goals in your last four games, had to sit in the stands for the game against your old club and equalled Marco Bode’s record on Saturday. Have you had a chance to digest it all?
Claudio Pizarro: There’s been a lot going on. We’ve needed points, we’ve needed wins, we’ve needed goals. We have been speaking a lot about it in the last few weeks. Above all, the week of the midweek fixture was an important one for us. It means a lot that I have been able to equal Marco’s record. I had hoped we would win the day I got that goal, but we weren’t able to unfortunately.
WERDER.DE: Congratulations from all of us here! I am assuming you will go on to break the record?
Pizarro: After the international break I want to score more goals for Werder so that the others don’t close in on me!
WERDER.DE: How does it fell to be the "100 Club"?
Pizarro: It’s important and special to score lots of goals. I would never have thought that I would be able to get so many. I am happy that it has been going so well recently. As I have said before, it is a huge honour to be Werder’s record goalscorer.
WERDER.DE: You were the only member of the "100 Club" up until now.
Marco Bode: Yes, we can have a proper exclusive club now. Claudio came back to break the record and he has scored almost double the amount of Bundesliga goals that I have in total. He’s a great goalscorer. I have said before that Tony Ujah could break the record too should he stay at the club for the next ten years.
WERDER.DE: Did you think that your record would stand forever or did you know this day would come?
Bode: I had half hoped and half feared that it would be broken. My daughter said that he wasn’t allowed to beat my record. I am happy about the way Pizarro’s season has materialised and that he has continued to hope that he could do it. The pre-Rückrunde preparation did him a lot of good and he is now at a great level to help us achieve what we need to. I’m happy for him and when he surpasses my record I have to just deal with it.
WERDER.DE: As a top striker in your day, can you tell us what Claudio does so well?
Bode: He has everything: great technical ability, a great finish and that instinctive ability to be in the right place at the right time. His style of play is something that good footballers learn, or have naturally. You have to work off the ball as well, Claudio is good at that. He really doesn’t have many weaknesses.
WERDER.DE: Now that you have equalled Bode’s record, what would surpassing it mean?
Pizarro: All goalscorers want to be number so it would, of course, be very special for me and for my career, no doubt.
So, a big congratulations to @pizarrinha on equalling #Werder's BL goalscoring record. Don't stop there though! 🍕⚽ pic.twitter.com/I9aH79mNaS
— SV Werder Bremen EN (@werderbremen_en) March 19, 2016
WERDER.DE: Are there any more records that you can try to break now?
Pizarro: No idea! I’m not working on anything at the moment. Journalists come up to me and tell me what I can do, only then do I know. I won’t be able to beat Gerd Müller’s record, that’s for sure!
WERDER.DE: What’s the secret to being a good striker – is there a special ingredient? Do you know the one key?
Bode: To be honest, Claudio is a different player to anyone else. He embodies the term 'striker'. I once had a taxi driver who said "Marco, you were a good player but for every goal you scored I remember at least one situation where you blindly shot wide". I wasn’t a striker but a forward-minded midfielder. I always wanted to take the ball forward because scoring is the most fun in football. I just liked to run forward and I only got so many because I played for Werder throughout my career. Pizarro also scored goals for Chelsea and Bayern. He is the better goalscorer, without a doubt.
In the second part of this interview, Bode and Pizarro will continue to talk about goals, loyalty to one club and ending their careers with the World Cup.
