Javi Martinez has reflected on life in the Bundesliga, the pressure of costing €40m and on a future at Bayern Munich with Pep Guardiola.
The Spanish international was the subject of protracted negotiations last summer before eventually leaving Athletic Bilbao for Bayern in a €40m transfer, with the Bavarians buying out his Basque contract.
Reflecting in an interview with Marca on the move, Martinez admitted that even he had doubts that it would work out to begin with.
“When I decided to sign I had no idea how it would go. It was all new: the club, the city, the language…it was a mystery,” he reflected this week.
“I am very attached to home, to be with my family, my friends, my land. I was a little afraid, more than a little. But everything went very well.
“It has been good and not just with regards to the football. I live in a great city such as Munich, a great country like Germany and I am also learning their language.
“What has surprised me most? It’s cold! I did not think it would be so intense. And the Germans, their honesty.
“They have newspapers on the street that you can take without paying for, but nobody does that. That does not happen in Spain.”
The midfielder was asked of the pressure in playing with a record €40m price-tag around his neck.
“It gave me motivation. The club and Heynckes spoke to me about the pressure and said to just play and not think about the €40m. That has been made clear to me since I arrived.
“And the first Spaniard at Bayern? No, because from the moment I arrived they made me feel like one of them, as if I had been playing with them before.”
Martinez will be joined at the Allianz Arena next year by a fellow Spaniard in former Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola.
“We’re not allowed to talk much about it now because in the week that it was announced we spoke about nothing else and that influenced us in the [next League] game against Greuther Furth, in which we were not very good.
“We were asked by the club to focus on the League as we still have half the season to go and that’s what matters.
“How will he do here? Time will tell. Bayern are playing very well, they have great players and most of them are young.”
