İlkay Gündoğan on Realities of Being a Footballer:
İlkay Gündoğan: “The truth is, a lot of times I’ll just lie in bed thinking about stuff. My brain refuses to switch off. I’ll think about football, family and life in general. I probably overthink things. But this is the way I am, and I wouldn’t change it even if I could.
In fact, I would like to share some of these thoughts with you here.
Because I feel like a lot of people think that we footballers live these perfect lives, like we’re in some kind of happiness bubble that is never disturbed. And that really isn’t the case at all.
I haven’t seen my parents or my brother in more than eight months now. And I haven’t seen the rest of my family in more than a year. My best friends are far away.
Part of that is down to the pandemic of course, and I know a lot of people are in similar situations.
But to be completely honest, I have felt a sense of loneliness all my career. It has been like this ever since I left home when I was 18.
As a footballer, I think that feeling is unavoidable.
Obviously, I cannot complain. We are rich and famous, and we get to do what we love.
I would never have wished for anything different.
But I still think back to the day I turned professional. It happened quite late for me, and for a long time I didn’t know if it was going to happen. And then my life changed forever.
It’s funny. When you are young, you think that your whole career is going to be a fairy tale.
But there are a lot of things that I wish I knew back then.”
