FC Bayern signed Eric Dier from Tottenham Hotspur in the winter. The England international has since become a regular at the German record champions. Dier is very proud of his personal development.
When FC Bayern signed Eric Dier in the winter transfer window last year, reactions were muted. The defender hardly featured at Tottenham in the first half of the season and was seen by many fans and experts as merely a stopgap solution for the Munich defence, which had been severely weakened in the meantime.
But Dier turned out to be a real bargain. The 30-year-old hardly needed any time to settle in and is now a fixture in the centre of defence.
Dier: „I am proud“
Dier attributes the fact that he was given the chance to move to FC Bayern at all to the way he dealt with the difficult situation at Tottenham.
„I’m proud of the way I behaved. That opened the door for me to come here,“ explained Dier in an interview with The Athletic.
Because although he was almost completely sidelined at Spurs, he never let up: „I trained hard every day and tried to stay as fit as possible. That was blind faith. Because you don’t know if you’re going anywhere in January or what’s going to happen. You can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.“
It’s „great“ at FC Bayern
Dier also had some words of praise for his new team-mates. He was welcomed by them with open arms in the winter. Serge Gnabry, Manuel Neuer and Joshua Kimmich in particular helped him a lot at the beginning.
„It’s just great that they are now my team-mates. You get a lot of confidence when you’re surrounded by them. You learn a lot and see what they do every day.“
Dier also seems to get on well with Thomas Müller: „He’s very funny, very charismatic and feels very comfortable in his own skin.“
The Englishman seems to be particularly impressed by the Bayern stars‘ hunger for success: „Especially for me – a player who hasn’t won any titles yet – it’s fantastic to be in a dressing room like this and at a club where you can learn so much.“
The only thing that would cause him difficulties is the „very difficult“ German language. However, giving up is not an option for the veteran: „Speaking other languages gives me confidence, so I don’t find it embarrassing to just give it a go. If I think I can say something, then I just do it.“