Former Roar striker Yeboah still chasing Bundesliga dream

After almost two years as a student in German football’s school of hard knocks, Australia export Kwame Yeboah has vowed to stay on course and deliver on his potential.

Kwame Yeboah during his time playing for Brisbane Roar Source: Getty Images

The former Brisbane Roar flyer caused a stir when he was snapped up by Bundesliga heavyweight Borussia Monchengladbach, late in 2013, after making just 12 A-league appearances.

Despite some injury setbacks and reality checks along the way, in an environment where gifted hopefuls queue to take your place should you suffer the merest stumble, the 21 year-old Queenslander, with Ghanaian heritage, is refusing to give an inch as he nears the halfway point of his four-year contract with the club competing in this season’s UEFA Champions League.

Nursing a minor groin injury sustained in the Korea Republic while on duty for the Olyroos earlier this month, Yeboah, who also missed two months of the pre-season with an ankle injury, put in pespective the challenge he faces while playing for Monchengladbach's second team in German football's fourth tier.

“There are no such things as minor setbacks here. When you have a small injury and miss any game time, there are players always ready to step in ahead of you," Yeboah said.

“If the team is winning, and the second team has been doing well this season, then the coach isn’t going to make a change for the sake of it.

“You don’t just walk back in and it can be a real battle. The quality of players, even at this level, is high and there’s so much hunger from boys looking to step up the ladder.

“It’s back and white, there’s no grey. If you are out, you are out, and getting back is the hard part.

“While the A-League is an amazing competition, the standard in the fourth tier here is much higher than people might imagine and lots of its players could easily play in the A-League.”

Yeboah, who has made 16 appearances since his arrival, is at the same club where Socceroos star Mathew Leckie began his German adventure and even he had to step down to the second tier while at PSV Frankfurt and Ingolstadt, before realising his dream of regular football in Germany’s top division.

Yeboah said he remains undaunted by the tests that lie ahead.

“I don’t think a lot of people back in Australia have a real idea of how massive the fight is here," he said.

“They probably see the results and team sheets and if you are not playing then they think you are failing.

“But the reality is you can train the house down for two months - but if the team is winning each week, then you are not going to get a start.

“People back home hear a lot of good things about the overseas-based players, but nobody really knows what goes on, how the training is and what the coaches are like.

"People that judge in Australia just don’t have the knowledge base. Maybe they just look at some stats on a website.”

Yeboah, now fluent in German, is a proud member of an Australian vanguard in Germany with Leckie flying at Ingolstadt, Mitch Langerak and Robbie Kruse fighting back to fitness after difficult starts to their new beginnings with Stuttgart, Ben Halloran excelling for second tier FC Heidenheim, Olyroos defender Milos Degenek a regular starter with 1860 Munich and Jamie Gorgovski in the youth ranks at Borussia Dortmund.

“What the other boys are doing is inspiring. You are never going to come here and not make it without a fight, and I am up for that," Yeboah said.

“I could have stayed in the A-League but I wanted to test and better myself and this is the place to do that.

“I have learned a lot here ... the depth of talent throughout the leagues here is incredible.

"You have players even in the third or fourth leagues that could easily make the transition the top league. The competition is something different.

“Winning and losing is everything, there’s so much at stake in every game and there’s never any relaxing. Technically and mentally I have had to sharpen up a lot.

“I've always had the pace but that in itself isn't enough ... it just doesn’t cut it. You need way more than that. You also have to be very smart in the way you play.

“My goal is break into the first team, but to be in with a chance I need to be playing regularly with the reserves first.

“I am 110 per cent committed to being successful in Europe … everything you go through here makes you that much more determined.

“It’s also inspiring when you look at what the likes of Mathew Leckie, Robbie Kruse and Mitch Langerak have achieved here. And Ben Halloran is also going really well too."