THERE is an almost permanent smile etched on Lukas Podolski’s face — and he is hoping Arsenal fans will be smiling with him at the end of the season.
The Germany striker has brought much more to the Emirates than just the goals Gunners need to end their own seven years of hurt.
He appears to have given the entire place a much-needed lift off the pitch and a ruthless streak on it that reeks of the winner manager Arsene Wenger has been searching for.
‘Poldi’ strolls into the media suite at Arsenal’s impressive training HQ, a long goalkick from St Albans, Herts, and shoots out his arm for a warm handshake.
He has just left his team-mates in the Gunners’ indoor playing arena trying to beat the fairground ‘buzz wire’ — he had two goes and was buzzed out both times.
It is straight down to business — with a smile of course — and it is clear there is so much more to him than just boots and shoots.
For a start there is the singing with a rock band bit.
Then there is Poldi the dancer — his movements have been described as like a drunk uncle at a wedding.
Poldi the joker — you will have to ask his team-mates what he gets up to.
And, of course, Poldi the £11million striker who travels around London on the Underground or by bus. “If it’s good enough for the England manager, it’s good enough for me and my family,” he says.
Podolski, 27, knows too well the seven years of misery Gunners fans have endured since they last won a trophy, the FA Cup back in 2005. And he knows what is expected.
Ahead of today’s clash at Norwich he said: “It is no good at the end of the season if you have scored 30 goals and the team is sixth in the Premier League.
“I want goals, I want assists for my team-mates, I want to play well for the team. I want to win something here at Arsenal.”
He has already won a few things back home in Germany, least of all a couple of accolades for his performance with a German rock band.
Poldi looks every bit the punk schoolboy in the video, wearing a white V-neck T-shirt and a loosely-tied tartan tie as he belted out lyrics to a chart song called Hallelujah.
He said: “There’s a very good group in Cologne called Brings and they asked me to sing on the track. I know them well. It was a lot of fun and I think the people liked me singing.
“Have I got a good voice? Some people think so but personally I know it was the machine they used to record the song.
“The technicians made my voice good. You could say I am striker and a singer!”
And when told his dancing on the Europop video was rated as no better than a drunk uncle at a wedding he jokingly demanded: “Who said that?”
Fun is a word that crops up a lot when you talk to Podolski and no one is safe from his pranks. He said: “It’s very important for me to have a smile on your face because without fun you could not play football.
“Football is fun. Of course, it is easier to smile when you have won than when you have lost but I always try to smile no matter what.
“Maybe it’s because I just love the job I have, I love to play at the training ground, in the stadiums and on the street with friends.
“Yes, it’s important to have fun with football. I have a bit of a reputation as a joker among the other players, I fool around but I know when the game gets serious.
“You must have some fun, we travel all the time, stay at the hotels, then you have to focus on the matches.
“It’s not a life if you have to focus all the time and don’t have some fun. Yes. Smile and have fun.”
Podolski, representing his old club Cologne, was speaking at Arsenal’s FIFA 13 Pro Challenge where he lost to Emmanuel Frimpong while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain took home the trophy. Pod said: “I chose Cologne for fun but I don’t think they were good enough for Arsenal. Maybe next year!”
One of the first things Podolski did with his wife Monika and four-year-old son Louis when they arrived in England was a quick tour of London. And there was only one way to do it… by tube.
He added: “I really do like London, I like the mentality of the people here.
“As for travelling on the Underground, if it’s good enough for the England manager, it is good enough for me.
“I have been on the Underground and on the buses as well with my family and one of my friends.
“Maybe a lot of people don’t recognise who I am but if they do I can always pull my cap down over my face!”
The only time Podolski gets serious is when he is reminded that former Germany manager Berti Vogts — who is now boss of Azerbaijan — rates him as a lazy man-about-town.
Podolski said: “He is a coach in Azerbaijan and maybe he doesn’t have a TV to watch the games. I don’t like it when people are in another country and they make a decision on you as a player.
“How can that happen if you don’t watch the games, or watch training and don’t even know me?
“I don’t think it’s unfair, he can talk about me all the time because it is not a problem for me.”
By PAT SHEEHAN
