Before I arrived here [ Borussia Dortmund], a lot of people were questioning about whether I could ever play as a striker, that I was a guy who could only run down the wing quickly.

At Milan when I was younger, I worked a lot on the leg press because I'd lost a bit of my natural speed as my body was changing. I was growing too fast for the rest of my body to cope and I had some knee problems. I worked really hard in the gym to regain these fast sprints.

I try to stay as young as these rookies are.It feels a bit strange not to be anymore the youngster I used to be. But I'm okay with it. Mostly, I enjoy being on the pitch with so many talented players around me.

My mother used to have a shop in which she offered very colorful clothes. I liked that from my early days on.

I've worked really hard on getting into the box more and being closer to the goal, which I think has brought real benefits to my game. It's definitely improved my goal scoring.

The fans of Borussia Dortmund are truly amazing. It is hard to describe what you feel when you play in front of them, the atmosphere they create not only on the yellow wall with its 25000-something fans jumping up and down a full 90-plus minutes of every game, no matter the score or the opponent.

When I arrive at our training ground at Borussia Dortmund, everybody could hear just that a few seconds before I can actually be seen. Everybody knows it's me. I love to hear the machine working.