Coming back to Barcelona is always a moment of happiness for Thiago Alcántara (22). Normally, the Alcántara family travels back to Brazil to celebrate Christmas but not this year. This year the Alcántaras are staying in Barcelona. Thiago just won the Club World Cup for the second time in his career and even managed to score in the final. His first milestone for FC Bayern Munich. The player shared his first moments at home with Catalan newspaper Sport as he was doing a workout organised by “5-hour ENERGY”, an energy drink. Read the translation of his interview after the jump.

Bayern is dominating at the moment, do you think they can achieve what FC Barcelona did during the Pep era?

It is very difficult to mark an era in football. Barcelona was feared in all of Europe and all over the world. It is very difficult to get opponents to respect and fear you. Bayern now have another goal in assimilating [Josep] Guardiola’s style and to keep on winning matches and titles.

How did you manage to adapt so quickly to the German champions?

It was easy both on a professional and on a personal level. My team mates are fantastic and they made everything a lot easier.

Do you and [Mario] Götze form a partnership in midfield that people will talk about for many years?

I think that good players are not those who make the difference on their own, but those who make their colleagues feel comfortable and play better. Götze is one of them. I feel very comfortable playing by his side and everybody trusts him. He is a player that will mark an era.

Do you feel that in Munich they understand your style of play more than in Barcelona?

In Bayern I changed my style compared to the one I had in Barcelona. Now, I try to assimilate to the style the team has. I am more comfortable and my game can be more relaxed. It’s not that they understand me better, I just play in a different position.

Don’t they expect a lot from you in Munich?

I’m not the child of the house here. Playing for Barça is a great experience but right now I have the ambition to play in Munich and hopefully I can achieve my goals. That would be nice. In Barcelona they expected a lot more from me because of the players that come through the youth ranks before me and exceeding what they have been doing would be very difficult. I don’t regret anything as I am very happy at Bayern.

Do you think you have gained a better footballing status in Germany?

The people like football and I try to please them. To make them enjoy football. In the Allianz [Arena] they worship football. You even have crazy supporters who don’t watch the game but face the audience and make them cheer! It makes you realise how much the people love this team.

Is Pep Guardiola different in the way he is coaching Bayern than the way he was managing Barça?

It’s different, yes. In Barcelona he was a man of the house who loves the club and always gave his all. Now he is at a club that’s also big but that can grow even more because they have a coach who has no roof.

In Munich he no longer has to be a coach, a president, a spokesman…

Why do you say that?

In Barcelona he had to deal with almost every incident…

Guardiola proved that he is a manager that controls his locker room very well. The players he has known all respect him and he also respects his squad. This combination makes the people give him a lot of power so that he can take decisions.

Your contract ends in 2017 and you said that you don’t want to speculate on your future but in the summer you were nice enough not to give priority to Real Madrid’s offer, is that correct?

In the summer my priority was to think about my decision to leave Barça. If it was [a] good decision or not. It was the most important decision of my life, and the most complicated one as well because I was formed here and I wore the Barça colours with pride. Since I was little I wanted to play football, but to me it was only natural (not to join Madrid).

Is there a problem of hierarchy in Barcelona’s dressing room?

No way! We, being  Tello, Bartra, Montoya & me, arrived after Busquets and Pedro who already were part of the team as if they have played there for many years. I am very grateful to the dressing room and proud to have been part of it.

Source: Sport/ Image: AP