Milot Rashica arrived at his new home on Tuesday evening and trained for the first time with his teammates the very next day. Before that he had a chance to look around the Weserstadion. Werder’s new signing is excited about the “huge number of fans and brilliant stadiums” in the Bundesliga. We spoke to Milot Rashica about that and much more in his first interview.
WERDER.DE: Welcome, Milot! How happy are you to have joined SV Werder Bremen?
Milot Rashica: “I am absolutely delighted to be a Werder Bremen player. The last few days have been quite stressful, especially yesterday. I am now just happy that we’ve cleared up all the details. Werder is a huge club with a lot of tradition and they play in one of the best leagues in the world. It’s massive for me to be able to play for this club.”
WERDER.DE: You are still a very young player at just 21 years old but you have quite a lot of first-team experience, having played 100 competitive matches for Vitesse Arnhem. What are your thoughts on your career so far?
Milot Rashica: “When I moved to Arnhem from Kosovo that was a really important step for me. I was given a chance to get to grips with professional football there and get a lot of experience. Vitesse was the first club that I played professional football at. I’m now taking my next step with my move to Werder and that’s a really big step.”
WERDER.DE: What do you know about the Bundesliga?
Milot Rashica: “The Bundesliga is a great league. Lots of fans, huge stadiums and incredible atmospheres. I followed the Bundesliga on TV when I was growing up in Kosovo.”
WERDER.DE: What are your goals with Werder?
Milot Rashica: “I think my personal goals are similar to those of the club. We want to win every game and climb up the table as quickly as possible. In my opinion, we have a really good chance of achieving that. In the last few games that I have followed, we have been really unlucky. We need to create our own luck now.”
WERDER.DE: How do you want to do that? What type of football do you have in mind, to get further up the table?
Milot Rashica: “I like the way that Werder play, with the courage that they have going forward. That appeals to me a lot as an attacking player. The team have a lot of pace in their game. That is the way that we can continue and I hope to be able to contribute to that style of play.”
WERDER.DE: And what strengths can you bring to the team?
Milot Rashica: “I see myself as a winger. I mostly played on the right hand side in Arnhem. I like one-on-one situations and I like to use my pace. I will try and do that here.”
WERDER.DE: We’ve got Schalke at the weekend, are you hoping to start in that game?
Milot Rashica: “Yes of course, that would be brilliant! I am fit and I’d love to play but the boss will decide that and if it doesn’t work out this week, then I will work hard so that I can play in the following game.”
