As Bundesliga will resume on 16 May, Maximilian Arnold admitted that he is excited to play football again this week.
The 25-year-old Wolfsburg stalwart revealed he has been waiting everyday for a league return announcement, after the season was suspended for more than two months due to COVID-19.
“We can finally start again. You’re waiting, you’re anxiously watching every press conference, you’re constantly getting new updates in training when you’re there.
‘I find it’s like…you can look forward to certain things, but it’s like every time “it can restart on this or that date, we have to wait on this or that”.
“And now we finally have a fixed date and I have to say you can focus on that and it’s only one and a half weeks away, it’s not that long. I’m happy that it’s finally restarting.”
Arnold admitted that staying at home for more than two months had been difficult throughout his entire career so far.
“I have to say they were some hard weeks. For me it’s enough if someone were to say: “you experience something like this every 100 years”, I hope I’m finished with this.
“I wouldn’t want to go through it again because on the one hand, I find it really impressive how disciplined people are now. But on the other hand, it’s alarming how something like this can have such an impact on society.”
While Bundesliga will resume this week, there will be no fans during the game at all, which reminded Arnold on one Europa League game against Shakhtar Donetsk, as the game played behind closed doors.
“It was a strange situation. But I think when you know that the fans are not there for the next few weeks, then I think you can adjust.
“When Leipzig played Tottenham, they played in front of fans, then there was PSG against Dortmund, they played without any fans and even Leverkusen against Rangers, they played in front of fans and then without.
“You have games with fans and games without fans. I think now everyone knows that no fans will be there and so it’s a bit easier to prepare yourself for it.”
Arnold has been with Wolfsburg since 2009 and made his professional debut at the age 17, 5 months and 30 days, becoming the youngest Wolfsburg player ever at the time.
Since then, he has played more than 200 appearances and becoming a loyal servant to the club, respected by teammates and fans.
“I think on the pitch you have to set a good example and have a good presence.
“You feel a bit inhibited at first because you understand every word. But you have to shake off this timidity so that you can play with freedom and approach in such a way that you are 100% there. I just try to convey that.”
This season, Arnold played 34 games in all competition and scoring 4 goals so far, but even that didn’t help much for the club to progress, as they sat 7th in the league table.
“I think in many ways. I think we drew too many games, we also had some unnecessary defeats. I think when we’re a bit more resolute at the back and up front, then we can improve.”