Gnabry Serge

Match Worn Boots

Werder Bremen S.V.

Did you Know?

Gnabry who could not join Bayern’s academy, since it is two-hour drive from his home in Stuttgart, went to Arsenal when he was only 15. He later battled for fitness and first-team minutes, so he was loaned out to West Bromwich where manager Tony Pulis mentioned that he wasn’t ready for top-flight football, and was not good enough to play at the Hawthorns. Pulis later commented on him after his good performances with Bayern: “I’m amazed. We had him at West Brom, we took him on loan and we could never get him fit. He even got taken off in an Under-21 game and he went back to Arsenal and they sold him on … To have him at West Brom and seeing him do what he’s done is absolutely amazing.” Afterwards, he decided to return to Germany to put his career back on track, where Rio Ferdinand mentioned: “I saw him in Dubai on the beach, him and [Hector] Bellerin came and they were just having a bit of time off. He was in a real kind of down, depressive kind of mood. He wasn’t playing, he wasn’t fancied and he was just talking about ‘I’m really going to work hard now, I’m really going to put my effort in, I’m going to train hard etc’. You could see the determination and the desire to actually become a player and what he’s done to go and turn his career around the way he has, has been phenomenal. He deserves enormous credit for that because some players would fold under that disappointment of not playing somewhere.” His Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger also commented: “Let’s not forget Gnabry, I bought him at the age of 15 from Stuttgart and he was injured a lot. He’s creative, he can score goals, right-footed, left-footed, good power, good penetration, very, very clever with the timing of his runs”, then added, “I had given him out on loan to West Brom and he didn’t play a game. He came back, he was injured. We worked very hard with him for six months and he went out with the German national team, under-21’s, and Bayern made a deal with Werder Bremen. He wanted to sign in the end, didn’t want to extend his contract (with Arsenal) and I was very sad. But we couldn’t get over the line with him because I knew he would have a great career. He can be a number nine, a number 10…he’s a very intelligent player.” Meanwhile, his former Arsenal teammate Lukas Podolski said: “He was unlucky and had a few injuries. He did well in training”. His Werder Bremen coach Alexander Nouri mentioned: “He was suffering a lot of injuries, so he couldn’t consistently work on his physical strength. He wanted to come back as fast as possible”. In the meantime, Gnabry improved his ability to score in both feet, where Nouri added: “I remember he often practiced finishing with his left foot after team sessions, he took a lot of balls and was working on his weaker foot – now he’s scoring a lot of goals with it”. He also became more involved in defensive duties, as Nouri said: “He is lightning quick, a clinical finisher, but he puts a lot of work now into his defense – that was something he was missing before,” then he added, “Now he’s making these deep runs back to his own box defending. He’s capable of doing this work while on the other hand making deep runs in attack. Before he wasn’t able to do it because of a lack of strength physically. After a long period with no injuries, he was able to build up that strength – now he’s a complete player. He just needs to prove this over a longer period to become a top international star.” His trademark cooking celebration was inspired by NBA star James Harden, he explained it by saying: “There’s a video on YouTube where he’s cooking after dropping, I think, a buzzer-beater and won the game. So he was cooking, stirring it up, and that’s the celebration.”