Andreas Voglsammer – formerly a target for Fulham – loving English football adventure at Millwall

Andreas Voglsammer has always had a desire to play in English football and after seeing one opportunity slip away in 2019, the German was determined to sign for Millwall in August.

The 30-year-old had played exclusively in his homeland before becoming one of the South London club’s summer transactions for an undisclosed fee from Union Berlin.

Voglsammer sought the advice of Konstantin Kerschbaumer, Julian Borner and Marco Stipperman – all former team-mates at Arminia Bielefeld who went on to play for Brentford, Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich respectively – as he did his due diligence.

Voglsammer does not name the side that looked set to give him a crack in the English game four years ago, but Fulham were the club in question. He visited both Craven Cottage and their training ground at Motspur Park.

“It was a club in London – at that time they had got relegated from the First Division [Premier League],” Voglsammer told the South London Press.

“They played in the second league [Championship], at that time.

“That was very close. But sometimes these things just shouldn’t happen.

“I knew of the interest of Millwall for a few years. It wasn’t the right time [then]. Maybe this was the last chance for a move to England, because it was always a dream to play here.

“I played every game last season, but not in the starting 11. I wanted to play more and I had good conversations with the gaffer [Millwall boss Gary Rowett] and Alex [Aldridge, director of football operations and recruitment]. It was an easy decision for me.”

Voglsammer, who played for Germany at U18 and U16 level, has started 13 of the Lions’ last 14 matches.

While at Bielefeld, where he won the 2. Bundesliga title in 2020, he employed a psychologist after a barren spell in front of goal.

He had an 18-game wait to get off the mark for Millwall, a tidy finish in the 2-0 victory over Watford on Boxing Day.

“I’ve not spoken to her [his psychologist] since I’m here but we have always stayed in contact,” said Voglsammer. “It is good for my personality, my mental health and general health.

“I have a lot of exercises that I learned from her. I try to do that at home.

“The exercises are to do with focus and that I’m good enough – that I’m not bad. Stuff like that.

“Every player is different. For me it is a big thing. It can help me to improve my performance.”

Rowett has previously made the point that Voglsammer is not playing in his favoured role through the middle. Instead he has been asked to play wider with Tom Bradshaw tending to take on the lone striking spot with club record signing Zian Flemming operating as a number 10.

“I think I can say I’m a team player,” said Voglsammer, who had a two-year spell in Bayern Munich’s academy.

“I’m helping the team on the right side, which is not my perfect position. But the club is above every player. It doesn’t matter which player wants to play and which positions. It matters that the club is successful.

“I can’t say my start here is good, because I haven’t scored enough goals or assisted enough goals.

“There have been a lot of games where we’ve played well and I’ve played well – but that’s not everything for me.

“I want to help the team with goals and assists. If I don’t score or get an assist then it is not a good game for me. Like on Saturday [a
3-0 win over Rotherham], I had a few good chances but I didn’t score, so I’m a little bit mad.

“It takes one night to get over it and then I work harder the next week. Hopefully the next finish is in the net.

“We have good players but at every club I’ve been at before we had good strikers as well.

“We have to be better than each other. When you want to play, it’s the only thing. You have to train harder, work harder and then it is a decision for the gaffer.”

Voglsammer’s career highlights are from Bielefeld, where he scored 49 goals in 163 matches.

“Maybe the promotion with Bielefeld is the best because they had not played in the big league for, I don’t know, 15 years or something,” he said.

“And we achieved it. But is was also huge that we didn’t get relegated the season afterwards. On the last day we won against Stuttgart and we stayed in the league. That was big success for the club, and for us.”

Millwall getting to the Premier League might top that. Not that the striker is getting carried away.

“I don’t look at the table, because it is a very long season,” said Voglsammer. “We still have 21 games left.

“After the very last game we can talk about the table, but now it is too early. We have to focus on every single game and we will see what happens.”