Sergej Barbarez has played for several Bundesliga clubs, involving Hansa Rostock, Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV.

Now the 35 year-old plays for Bayer 04 Leverkusen. In 280 Bundesliga matches so far, Barbarez has scored 87 goals.

bundesliga.de: Sergej Barbarez, your German football career got an unusual start. In 1991 you did some training sessions with Hannover 96. Can you tell us about that?

Sergej Barbarez: The reason why I came to Germany was to visit relatives and I wasn t planning to play any football here in Germany. I had just signed my first professional contract to move up to the top team from the youth squad on my team in Bosnia. I was really happy. But in the two weeks I was here the situation in Bosnia had gotten worse. As everyone knows, war broke out in early 1992. Without my knowledge, my uncle had arranged a training try-out for me with Hannover 96. I trained with the team on January 4th and they were pleased with me. That s how I began playing football in Germany.

bundesliga.de: Is there anything you could pass on, from your experience as a foreign player, especially one coming from Eastern Europe, that would be really helpful?

Barbarez: You have to believe in yourself and you have to take a good look at the way things work in Germany. You have to accept a lot of things and not approach them the same way you would at home. That is what worked for me anyway.

bundesliga.de: You were the top scorer in the Bundesliga in 2001 - together with Schalke s Ebbe Sand. Was that a special highlight in your career?

Barbarez: Naturally it was for me personally. It was a really great time for me, especially when you consider only two other players had achieved that in Hamburg before me: Uwe Seeler and Horst Hrubesch. I was very proud.

bundesliga.de: In 2005 you were named "Man of the Year" and "Sportsman of the Year" in Bosnia. How did that come about and how do you feel about it?

Barbarez: You can only feel a great sense of satisfaction when you re not at home any more but you re still held up as an example, and that you can still do something for your homeland, even if you live outside the country.

bundesliga.de: You re also involved in community work - you support a children s home. What motivates you to do that and how did you get involved?

Barbarez: I think that for me helping others is obvious since I ve achieved something in my life and gotten somewhere. I simply want to help people in my home country who are affected by the war, especially children who have no homes. I simply have to do it, and there are a couple of projects in Mostar that I support and the Children s Home is one of them. It came about through friends that I visited and I made a few contacts. I saw how the children live and it s very sad. I felt obliged to do something and I ve been active for a few years now. I'll stay involved for longer as well.

bundesliga.de: You re 35 now. But when you re on the pitch you re just as emotional and euphoric as earlier. Will that always stay the same? Aren t you going to calm down with age?

Barbarez: (Laughs) I ve always said I play football with emotion and I live on emotion. And as long as I m having fun playing football, I ll continue to play that way. When you see me on the pitch and I m no longer gesturing and showing my emotions, then I ll know too, that I ve come to the end of my career...

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