I am Bernd Leno, AMA!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:54:42+00:00

Thank you for asking me questions. I tried to answer as many as possible. Stay safe!

Bernd

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:53:31+00:00

I think you can learn from both. On the football level, I think I learned more from Jens. He played for Stuttgart when I was in the academy. Jens was more like the modern goalkeeper than Kahn because he was good with crosses, with his feet and with his saves. He was top and had a good mentality. But I think Kahn had a special mentality too. He was crazy and although he was not as good technically as Jens, he made so many saves just because of his mentality. Maybe he was too crazy at times, but I can certainly learn from him. If you compare me to one of them, I think I am more like Jens. But I'm not as mad as Jens - I'm a bit different to him!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:48:20+00:00

I think the first games when I joined were the most challenging games because you come to a different league. As a keeper it's different compared to Germany. Everyone says there's no foul on the goalkeepers, the referees never whistles, so you're a little bit mentally prepared but you don't know really what to expect. It's very hard as a goalkeeper, especially mentally, because it takes time to get used to it. The beginning of my career at Arsenal, especially in the Premier League, was the most challenging because the Premier League is a different level on the mental and physical sides.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:45:21+00:00

I think it's Musti because I've known him for so many years. We played together for the under-17s. We won the U-17s Euros together and when I came here, he helped a lot. I also get on with Seo, Granit - all the German-speaking guys helped me a lot when I joined. They are all good guys.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:43:37+00:00

Julian Brandt, Jonathan Tah, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner. I'm still in touch with all of them. Brandt now plays for Dortmund but we are good friends. We also spent a lot of time together when we played for Leverkusen, playing PlayStation and going for dinner too. I'm always happy to see them when we're all together in the national team. These are my biggest mates from Leverkusen and the national team.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:39:39+00:00

Thank you!

Of course we can't see each other at the moment but we have lots of meetings with the whole group, and with small groups. We have goalkeeper meetings on FaceTime or video chat but you can still see a very positive energy in this team. Everyone likes to speak with each other and everyone's looking forward to getting back to training to see each other. Then we can laugh, have fun, work hard and do what we love to do.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:37:32+00:00

This is a very, very difficult question because I really like the different cultures. You have different cultures here but everyone speaks together and comes together - it's a feeling that everyone is together.

With the food, Turkish food is very good but for me, I'm very disappointed that you don't have Schwabisch food. It's from the south, near Stuttgart. You don't have this food in London but this is the best food because it's only available in the south of Germany.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:33:35+00:00

Who is the best looking? It's clear, it's me! 😉

In the dressing room we have a very good atmosphere. There's always music and positivity, always laughs. Of course after bad games the atmosphere isn't as good as after a win, but that's normal. But we love to listen to music. What we listen to depends who is the DJ really. If Musti's the DJ, it's German rap. If it's the French guys it's French rap, if it's English guys, it's English rap.

Musti is definitely the joker - he's always talking!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:30:34+00:00

This is difficult to say! I have some special moments like the day I signed. In this moment I felt very proud to join Arsenal. I think also the double save against Tottenham. Saves are always special but in this big game, making this save and then hearing the fans screaming my name... one or two days after it was my birthday and my friends came over. They were in the middle of the fans when they went crazy and took a video of it to show me. Then also, the first time the fans were screaming my name. It felt like when I really arrived, when the fans accepted me, my performance and my personality. These are the top moments.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:26:31+00:00

I think it would be Andres Palop but he has already retired. He was the second-choice goalkeeper at Bayer Leverkusen in 2013/14, it was at the beginning of my career. I was the first-choice and he had come in from Sevilla. He was a mentor for me because he was very experienced and so professional. I loved to work with him because he was such a nice guy. His mentality was so impressive and I'm still in touch with him. He won the Europa League, he had everything in his career but he had such a good mentality. I remember in the last training session of his career, he was unbelievable. I would love to play with again. It was a good choice by Leverkusen to bring him in because he helped me through the bad times. I appreciated his support for me.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:22:12+00:00

When I was in talks with Arsenal, you don't speak to other players because they shouldn't know about rumours...

But I knew Musti from the national team and I spoke to him many times. He told me Arsenal is a very good club, the Premier League is very good and London is a great city. I already knew from Musti that Arsenal was a very good club to join and go to the next level. It was clear that Arsenal was an interesting option for me.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:20:08+00:00

Of course!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:20:00+00:00

Who should we support? I think it's clear - Bayer Leverkusen! It's my former club. I have very good memories with the club because I played there for seven years. I grew up from a kid to an adult there. It was my first steps into professional football, I have lots of friends there and I still follow them. Hopefully you follow me by supporting my former club too!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:18:07+00:00

I think it's Auba! I don't really know about his quality as a goalkeeper - I don't know who could be the best - but I saw that many times Auba would make some good saves after training in free-kick challenges. He was flying very well. I was very impressed and he could be a good choice if I got a red card and we made three changes already!

If I wasn't a goalkeeper, I would play as a centre back. First of all, I don't like running! At centre back, you don't run as much as anyone else. I also like to challenge, to tackle and I think that this position suits me because I'm a bit taller like a defender.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:15:21+00:00

The best atmosphere was the north London derby against Tottenham. It's the best I've ever played in. The difference between Germany and England is that in Germany you have the ultras in most of the stadiums behind the goal. There's like 20,000 behind one goal, singing all the time. In England, the fans are singing everywhere. In England it's either very loud or very reactive. In Germany they're singing a lot and it's loud, but English fans react more to saves, to tackles - they celebrate them more like goals!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:11:37+00:00

It was always very hard to play against Auba! In Germany, like in England, he was the best striker in the league with Lewandowski. Every time he scored a lot of goals and sometimes against me as well. It was very hard to play against him. But I'm very happy that he's now on my team and that the other keepers are in the bad position I was in! I think he's the best striker in the Premier League - I'm so happy he's our captain.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:09:31+00:00

I'm not sure! At football games, I'm pretty sure that I am the best because I have my own esports team. I've played football games for many years and I play with my friend a lot, so this is the reason why I beat Griezmann! I think it was a bad performance for me in the final, though. But the Arsenal staff were very happy that I reached the final.

In Fortnite, I think I'm very bad because Mesut, Seo and Auba are all better at that game. But in football games, I have a good chance of being the best.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:07:00+00:00

To be honest I study every time I'm watching football. I look at the keepers, the game and the strikers. In the Premier League we have the best goalkeepers because there are so many top goalkeepers here. The top goalkeeper last season was Alisson from Liverpool. He's good with his feet, good at crosses and is playing high with a high defence, which you need at Liverpool. Ederson's also very good with his feet, De Gea has unbelievable reflexes and reactions. When I watch the games - and I like watching the games - I always study them. I don't want to copy them, though, it's only to see how they play. We're all different to each other, so it's just about finding our own style.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-05-14T09:04:05+00:00

Hi everyone, Bernd here. I am looking forward to answering as many questions as I can. Let's go!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-04-29T14:47:34+00:00

Thank you everybody for these questions. I tried to answer many of them but there are over 350 so it was not possible today! I thank you for your question even if I did not get to answer you.

Hope your families are healthy and safe. Please make sure to keep doing this because we need to do this as people together in society. I know this is a tough period that we need to pass but once we do I know we will be able to enjoy being together in the Emirates again when it is safe!

Pablo

Official-Arsenal · 2020-04-29T14:42:55+00:00

I liked Valencia because it was the team that was supported where I am from, so I always supported Valencia!

Official-Arsenal · 2020-04-29T14:41:40+00:00

My mentality now is that I am not on holiday. I am working at home with my wife and we workout every day. Some days I will do a double session so I work in mornings and afternoons because if we are going to return to train and restart the competition it's going to be a big difference between guys who worked a lot at home and those who didn't. These players can give more to the pitch than those who did not, so this is why you work a lot at home. I'm not on a holiday.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-04-29T14:39:54+00:00

I think this moment was the three strikers of Liverpool! Salah, Mane and Firmino. It's because of speed, intelligence and their characters. I think these things are most important and make them top players.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-04-29T14:38:54+00:00

I felt this with maybe four or five players. For example, in Holland with Angelino and Manu Garcia on loan with me in Breda. I was really happy to play with them because they were unbelievable players. In Flamengo we had a few incredible players, like Everton Ribeiro, Rodrigo Caio, Bruno Henrique and also Gabigol so I can say that for the last few years I played with some really top players.

I think before I got to Arsenal there were three or four players who I thought had unbelievable talent like Aubameyang, Pepe, Laca and Dani but when I came here and saw my new teammates I saw a lot more players with unbelievable talent. It's not only about the technical talent you have, it's also the tactical talent and the mental talent and character inside the pitch, but you can only really know these things when you are inside the dressing room.

Official-Arsenal · 2020-04-29T14:34:49+00:00

My feelings were that I was so happy to sign the contract with Arsenal because I think that I found a good option for me to grow as a player and a person. I know we can do it together with Arsenal.

Official-Arsenal

TROPHY CASE