Barça goalkeeper Ter Stegen: I'm a more mature person now

Barça goalkeeper Ter Stegen: I'm a more mature person now

Ter Stegen admite que es feliz en el Barcelona
Ter Stegen admite que es feliz en el Barcelona | sport

The German international has spoken to UEFA

He says he is "incredibly happy" at Barcelona

Marc-Andre Ter Stegen spoke to UEFA 48 hours before Barcelona's Champions League game against Olympiacos. 

The first thing he was asked about was the importance of Barça goalkeepers playing with their feet: "That's important at this club, but not the most important. The most important thing in reality is to make saves and always be active. Obviously, your football ability is important because you can add an advantage to the team in relation to our positioning on the pitch. You always have to be active and alert to defend the goal or to participate in the play and help your teammates." 

Ter Stegen says it's nothing new to him, though: "At Gladbach, I began to identify with these type of situations and I learned from them. There's always a solution for everything, even though some more difficult solutions imply a bigger risk. 

"[Playing with the ball] there is always an element of risk. At the end of the day, it depends on us to find the solution and that's what I do. When you find the solution, you try to carry it out. It's easier to do that with the teammates I have here. I back them to control the ball in the way the have to in each situation." 

This is Ter Stegen's fourth season with Barça and he feels he's changed a lot: "I'm a more mature person now. A lot of things have happened in these three years. Now I am beginning my fourth season here. I have been incredibly happy until now and I am happy to continue my career here, because it is what I want to do. We all have the chance to keep having success. That's what Barça have always desired. And I think we are doing well, we are all hungry to keep winning games." 

After three years with Luis Enrique, this is the stopper's first with Ernesto Valverde: "Our [new] manager has a different point of view and we have to support him. We have to assure him that we understand his concepts because he has new, different ideas. He's also introducing more options to our game, which makes you be an even better player, because you're learning new things. Our job is to put these changes into action and I have to say that we've done quite well until now."