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Elias Kachunga in interview

Interview: Constantin Stüve / alOctober 3, 2014

With three goals so far this season, Elias Kachunga has helped get minnows Paderborn off to a decent start. DW caught up with the 22-year-old striker to talk about his career and the Bundesliga's most obscure club.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DOOd
Elias Kachunga celebrates a goal against Hamburg
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Heimken

Coming up... Paderborn

DW: If I'm an overseas-based fan of the Bundesliga and I look at the table and see the club name Paderborn, I really don't know what to think. Can you tell us what is so special about Paderborn?

Elias Kachunga: It's a small club, where everyone knows everyone. People are nice to each other and they really put a lot of effort in for the team. The city itself isn't a big one, like Munich, Berlin or Dortmund. But there are lots of students here, so there is quite a bit going on. You can go into the city and head into a café or a bar. It's just like other German cities.

What sort of attitude does your team have when you play a big opponent, like say Bayern Munich?

I think you just have to have fun, because we've got nothing to lose. We just have to concentrate on our own game, and then you just see what comes out at the end. It doesn't help if we get scared. No-one think we will win, that means we can play freely and then we can just hope that we can get some points out of it and play to our best.

It is an advantage that no-one expects much of your team?

Yes, I think so. We can work in peace here. We don't have much pressure on us from the outside and we can just focus on the job at hand. Then, every week, we can just try to challenge the big sides.

Elias Kachunga celebrates with teammates in Hamburg
The team comes first: Paderborn and Kachunga (middle) celebrate their strong start to the seasonImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Revierfoto

You used to live and play in Berlin with Hertha Berlin. How are things different here?

Berlin is the capital, so you obviously have endless things to do there. But here, you can really concentrate on football and there are things to do as well. It's not as if I sit at home all day and get bored. What people write about us here, about Paderborn being a small village, is wrong. We all know each other though from last year and we don't pay any attention to that. We just want to show everyone that we belong in the Bundesliga.

What is your goal for this season?

Our goal is really clear: we want to stay in the first division of the Bundesliga. That will stay our goal, right up until the final day of the season.

What about your internal team communication? How would you compare it to other clubs where you have been, like Borussia Mönchengladbach or Hertha Berlin?

We have been together as a team for a while now and I think that has helped us grow together. In the bigger clubs there are lots of players that come from overseas, and they can't speak the language, so little groups start to form. There's no big difference to other clubs I have been at, but we do get on especially well here and that makes me happy.

What was the reason for your move in 2013 to Paderborn, a team which was in the second division back then?

Elias Kachunga
Tough times: Kachunga spent six months in Berlin, but played just twice in the top flightImage: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Stache

I was on loan to Hertha Berlin, from Gladbach, and I didn't have such a great time there. I thought to myself that I should move to a so-called "smaller club" and just start over again. In Paderborn everything was just right and it was clear I would get a lot of match practice quickly. In the end, it all paid off. Last year we played a great season, and we deservedly moved up into the top flight.

You have been here some one and a half years now. These days, when you hear the word "Paderborn" what do you think of? What does this city stand for?

It's a city that is in a state of euphoria at the moment. It is also booming too. A lot more is going on here now because the Bundesliga has come to town. It's a city on its way up, a place that you will hopefully hear a lot more about in the next few years.

Elias Kachunga is Paderborn's most successful striker this Bundesliga season with three goals so far from six games. The up-and-coming attacker has been playing for Germany's underage teams since 2008, and debuted last month for Germany's U21 side.