I said to myself, 'So, now you're here, train!' Of course, you also need a little luck and a coach who has faith in you. "I was this kid from Poland, an immigrant kid, who didn't let himself get pushed around in training. "I just went for it and took on the challenge," explained Podolski of how he established himself in a fiercely competitive environment. With a flurry of players called Lukas in the squad, Podolski was christened 'Poldi'. He was just six when he joined Jugend 07 Bergheim, his local club, and within four years he was pulling on the shirt of his first football love: 1. But his football ability, which stood out early on, earned him kudos in social circles, and also the nickname by which he is universally known in Germany. Hailing from an immigrant family, at first Podolski was not even Lukas - he instead wrote his first name with the Polish spelling Ćukasz. When I land at the airport or walk down certain streets, when I see the stadium for example, then I get butterflies in my stomach. "There are times when I'm totally in love with it. "It's hard to put into words," said Podolski, trying to find how to express his connection to the city that made him. It is a long way from those first tentative dribbles in Bergheim, a suburb of Cologne, to owning a string of kebab shops, an ice cream parlour, a sportswear brand with a shop in the centre and, well, generally being regarded as a living legend of the city. Every day, he would be out there on the playground with a ball." "That's when Lukas started getting into football. "We had nothing," said Waldemar, who made the move in the dying throes of the Cold War. When he came into the world on 4 June 1985 it was in the Polish city of Gliwice, but he was just two years old when his parents, former footballer Waldemar and ex-international handballer Krysztyna, and his sister headed across the border to then-West Germany, travelling to the Domstadt to re-join their children's paternal grandparents.
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