Interview with Subrata Pal (India/Prayag United SC): Learned a lot in Leipzig!

German fourth division (Regionalliga Nordost) club RB Leipzig are not going to sign Indian international goalkeeper Subrata Pal ( RB Leipzig: Subrata not selected, but club to invite him again ), but at the club they were all praise for the Indian keeper. I had a chance to speak to Subrata in Leipzig and here in part one, we speak about his trial-cum-training stint with the German club.


You spend two weeks here in Germany with RB Leipzig. How was the experience?

Excellent! I really enjoyed the experience. It was a good learning process for me to train with the different teams (seniors & under-23s) of RB Leipzig. The level of coaching, players, everything at the club is very high, so it was a good challenge for me.


What could you learn here from the coaches and the players?

First of all professionalism and giving 100% in every practice session. This might sound obvious, but this is what you learn when you come here!

You have here great pitches, great atmosphere. It just was an incredible experience.

I learned a lot of things and I hope I can utilise all that I have learned over the last couple of weeks in my game in the future.


If you had to pick amongst all the things you have seen here in Germany, what was the best of all that at RB Leipzig?

The pitch!!! There is no doubt about the fact that the grounds are the best. I just love practicing and playing on such real grass pitches.

And if I am allowed to name something else then it is the training, especially the goalkeeping training under Perry Bräutigam which is of the highest quality.

Then you could also name the facilities, as you realise it is very difficult in the end to name of one amongst all these.


People back in India questioned why the Indian national team goalkeeper has gone to a German fourth division club. What would you like to tell these people?

I don't want to say anything to anyone, but these people should come and see with their own eyes the level of football in the German fourth division and then make their judgement. Surely they would be surprised by the professionalism and high standards at this level.

I have done what I thought was good for me, I have learned a lot at RB Leipzig and once I again perform well in India then people will say that he has learned something good in Germany.


Here Photos: Subrata Pal's training with RB Leipzig !

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