OWEN HARGREAVES RECALLS his first encounter with Bastian Schweinsteiger being a rather strange one.
The pair were both promising young footballers on the books of German giants Bayern Munich and lived at the same block of youth team apartments.
Schweinsteiger, three years Hargreaves’ junior, idolised his fellow midfielder, who had at that point already signed professionally, and would spend hours watching him take part in extra training sessions.
On one such afternoon, he built up the courage to ask for the Englishman’s boots.
“I used to practice free-kicks and he came by and said ‘can I have your shoes?’,” Hargreaves said during an interview for BT Sport earlier this week.
“I didn’t know who he was and I think I said no to him. Then he came up in the first team a couple of years later, so I tried to help him make that transition easier, as when I came through it wasn’t like that.
“The older guys used to kick the life out of you, that was the school it was. That was fine, I quite liked it actually. But when I was in the first team, when the lads came through – Schweinsteiger and Lahm – I was going to try and help and mentor them.”
They played alongside each other for five seasons before Hargreaves accepted an offer to relocate to the birth country of his father and join Manchester United in 2007. Though injuries would later confine him to little or no playing time at Old Trafford, Hargreaves did win a Premier League and European Cup double in his first season at the club.
Eight years on, his old friend has made the same move and the BT Sport pundit respects his decision.
“I admire anybody leaving their comfort zone,” he said. “He was part of the furniture at Bayern, he could easily have stayed and had an easy gig.
“I left them after 10 years for a change, because you get too comfortable sometimes. When you leave your comfort zone, a lot of people could just stay there. You have to admire people who take that opportunity.”
United manager Louis van Gaal has taken his time to integrate the German World Cup winner into his team, handing him just two starts so far and mainly choosing to bring him off the bench as a replacement for Michael Carrick.
However, Hargreaves predicts big things from Schweinsteiger, who could start in this evening’s Premier League clash with old rivals Liverpool, particularly when the Champions League group stages get underway next week.
“You will see him at his best in the big Champions League games, because he will control the tempo when you need to,” Hargreaves added. “He will know when to press and when to slow it down. He is a great acquisition, also for the younger players to mentor them.
“As much as he is a great guy, the most important thing is the product on the pitch. It is great to have a relaxed, good environment. But he wants to win and has done a good job of that with about 1000 league titles over the years.
“So Basti deserves respect for leaving what is an incredibly comfortable situation to experience something new. But it will take time to transition.”
BT Sport pundit Owen Hargreaves was speaking at the launch of BT Sport’s UEFA Champions League coverage for the 2015/16 season in London. BT Sport is only available to Irish viewers through the Setanta Sports Pack.
The Setanta Sports Pack will broadcast live coverage of all UEFA Champions League matches this season along with being the only place to see Liverpool, Celtic and Spurs in Thursday night’s Europa League. To subscribe visit www.setanta.com
