Chelsea’s centre-back, Antonio Rudiger has opened up about how he started his footballing career as a winger initially. He revealed that he was one of the players in the attacking trident up front along with two other Americans, John Brooks and Jerome Kiesewetter.
Kiesewetter had the experience of playing two games for the USMNT national team at that moment. Out of those three, Rudiger himself and John Brooks converted themselves as a defender while Jerome remained as the only one to play in the attacking third.
John Brook now is a defender for Wolfsburg while Jerome is playing for USA’s Inter Miami. Rudiger on the other hand has thrived in the position since he has converted.
“I played at Hertha Zehlendorf in the attack together with John Brooks who is a Bundesliga defender at Wolfsburg today. We played with a three-man forward line: John in the middle, me on the left and Jerome Kiesewetter, who now plays for Inter Miami in the USA, on the right,” Rudiger told T-Online via Goal report.
“Jerome and I were pretty fast, John was technically good and very tall early on – he mostly headed the balls in from the centre. We were very good, and that’s how we came to the attention of the professional clubs – at that time, it was the winger Antonio Rudiger!
“John then went to Hertha and was retrained as a central defender. I switched to BVB and also became a defender. Jerome remained a striker.”
The 27 years old centre-back has been with the Blues since 2017 after making a move from AS Roma in a £29 million ($39m) transfer deal. Rudiger has been consistent in his initial years with Chelsea, making 120 appearances. He has fallen down the pecking order in Chelsea with the like of Thiago Silva, Fikayo Tomori, Andreas Christensen all getting minutes ahead of him.
Rudger is although still an integral part of the German team, having played 37 games so far including a successful Confederations Cup victory in 2017. He has also been an active member of the 2018 squad of the World Cup.
