BIG INTERVIEW: LUKAS NMECHA

‘MY BORO LOAN IS A CHANCE TO SHOW EVERYONE WHAT I CAN DO’

- Chris Dunlavy

WHEN Lukas Nmecha joined Wolfsburg in the summer, he wanted to serve up a feast of football.

Sadly, the only thing he cooked during a six-month slog in the Bundesliga was a decent lasagne.

“It was my first time living away from home,” explains the 21-year-old, now on loan at Middlesbrough after his stint in Saxony was cut short by parent club Manchester City.

“So I enrolled in cooking lessons to make sure I could look after myself. It wasn’t something the club organised, it was just off my own bat. It was good. I can make a good lasagne. A spaghetti bolognese. I’m not bad actually.”

Which isn’t surprising, given the amount of time he had to practise. Promised “substantial” game time when he joined Die Wolfe in August, the striker started just one match under manager Oliver Glasner, a 3-0 defeat away to high-flying Borussia Dortmund.

It was not how Nmecha – or City – envisaged the youngster’s return to his spiritual home.

Born in Hamburg to a German mother and Nigerian father, Nmecha moved to England at the age of nine.

“My dad got a job,” he explains. “He lived here for a year first and got everything arranged for us. House, schools, things like that.

“It must have been tough for him, I guess. But for me, not really. At that age you can adapt to anything.”

Ten years in City’s academy removed any trace of an accent. In 2017, Nmecha scored the winner as an England team with Reece James and Mason Mount beat Portugal in the final of the European Under-19 Championships.

Yet such was the pull of his heritage that last March Nmecha formally declared for Germany. The move to Wolfsburg was intended to cement that allegiance.