Bundesliga official website interview with Gnabry: Levan deserves to be the world footballer of the year

Bundesliga official website: One of the things you did during the Christmas holidays was watching an NBA game in Miami. What kind of experience was that? Where did your passion for basketball come from?

Gnabry: Yeah, I went to Miami before Christmas. I watched the Heat's game against the Indiana Pacers and I really enjoyed going there. It's always nice for me to watch a sporting game instead of going to the last game, and then I can relax on the sidelines and watch the players perform and see how they fight in the sport from their own field to the opposing field.

Where does this enthusiasm come from? It's a cumulative development over the years, and I love watching LeBron and James Harden and all those stars. Whenever possible, I try to watch these games.

Bundesliga official website: You will face Cologne on Saturday. Your performance against Cologne is always impressive: a total of 11 goals, 8 of which were scored twice, and even the average number of goals against Cologne was higher than Lewandowski! What are your thoughts on this? Why do you like to play with Cologne so much?

Gnabry: I would say it's really good to play Cologne, so hopefully I'll score a few more goals this Saturday. Where these goals will come from, I can't tell you yet. To be fair, I enjoyed playing at Cologne Stadium, which is a great stadium. So far I've been lucky to score goals against them all the time and hopefully this Saturday I'll be able to repeat my previous performances.

Bundesliga official website: The recent three consecutive league wins have filled Cologne with confidence, what makes them so strong this season? How do you want to break their winning streak?

Gnabry: I think they've become very strong under the new coach, and in terms of their physical functioning now, it's very important. They did a good job of pressing forwards, supporting the striker with a lot of crosses. Modersco is in good shape, they will not concede defeat, they will just move on.

For us, playing our style of play and getting the ball in control is the key to winning. We want to seize the opportunity that Cologne gets when they are exhausted under our way of possession.

Bundesliga official website: Although there are still a few games to play, we are looking forward to Bayern's match against RB Leipzig in early February. Pre-season RB Leipzig are seen as Bayern chasers and so far they have not achieved their expected results. However, they proved in the match against Mainz that they could play well. How do you rate RB Leipzig? How strong are they?

Gnabry: Of course, Leipzig has a great team with a lot of talented players. They've been struggling this season, but that doesn't mean they won't be ready to play again on matchday. It will be an important game for us and it will be decisive for us to consolidate our lead against Borussia Dortmund. We have to win, especially in big tournaments against teams like Leipzig. Hopefully we can win all the games before then and get three points again against Leipzig.

Bundesliga official website: FIFA will present the World Footballer of the Year award on Monday, and Robert Lewandowski has been nominated. Why do you think he deserves this award?

Gnabry: I think in the last two years he's probably the most consistent player. In my eyes – and obviously he's my teammate – I hope he gets this award and wishes him all the best. In my opinion, his state is the most stable. He scored so many goals, it's incredible. He also broke several records, so I think he deserved to be elected World Footballer of the Year. ”

Bundesliga official website: FIFA will also present the Goalkeeper of the Year award, Manuel Neuer is nominated, why do you think he should win?

Gnabry: Because he's a great goalkeeper, he's proven himself to be the best over the years, and at least I can say he's the best goalkeeper I've ever seen. In my opinion, he deserves to be the best goalkeeper.

Bundesliga official website: In 2019, you traveled to Côte d'Ivoire and visited a public welfare project called "TackleAfrica" that you supported through CommonGoal, do you sometimes think back to this trip? What do you say about your social activities? (Note: CommonGoal is a community charity founded by Juan Mata to empower young people through football, Gnabry is the second Bundesliga player to join CommonGoal after Hummels; TackleAfrica is a non-profit project in Africa that promotes HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual health to young people through football.)

Gnabry: Of course, sometimes when I look through my photos and see what happened to me when I visited the TackleAfrica facility, I think about and talk about the event. I want to continue my social activities and try to get involved in these emerging things in a planned way. Unfortunately, I have not been able to visit again in the past two years, and I hope that I can visit the local area again as soon as possible.