I was always sure the Bundesliga was the right choice for me. My first season was solid, if unspectacular, so maybe I would have preferred it not to be so hard at the beginning, but I've worked very hard to get to this point and want to get even better now.

[Didier] Drogba sent me a text message after I won the African Player of the Year award. It made me very happy.

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.

Achieving Champions League football is the minimum requirement and always the most important thing for [Dortmund Borussia] club. Beyond that, we want to win a trophy. Maybe the German Cup, because we've reached the last three finals, but haven't won one, so that's a big motivation for us.

I've played in France. There, in many matches everybody is already happy if he can secure a point. Here, in Germany? Forget it! Everybody wants to win. The last-placed team in the standings would take any match with the ambition to win it. That makes it so hard, even for the best teams in the league.

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.

I always set myself new goals. I always want to do better than I did in the past. I always want to achieve things I never achieved before.