Ex-forward of the Romanian national team Ciprian Marica, known in Ukraine for his performances in Shakhtar, recalled the difficulties he faced after moving from the UPL to the German Bundesliga.
Ciprian Marika. Photo: schalke04.de“First of all, it was difficult for me psychologically. I was not ready for such a tough game, for such tough people. I mean that from the first trainings I was beaten, at some point someone went into a tackle, someone hit my neck with an elbow. I remember how I fell and waited for the doctor to come, for the coach to come to pick me up and ask: “How are you? What happened?” But the coach from afar only told me: “Get up, this is Germany!” No one approached me, no one asked me anything about how I was feeling. This made me doubt the correctness of the decision to move to the Bundesliga. I started to analyze the options. It was clear that at that time I was not ready to play in Germany," said Marika.
Recall that Marika moved from Shakhtar to Stuttgart in the summer of 2007 for 7 million euros. In total, the Romanian forward played six years in Germany - for Stuttgart and Schalke. He has 126 matches, 24 goals and 17 assists in the Bundesliga.
