Reece Oxford is settling in quickly to life on loan at German Bundesliga club Borussia Monchengladbach.
The 18-year-old will spend the 2017/18 season with The Foals, who hope the England U19 defender will help them improve on their ninth-place finish last season.
Oxford and his new teammates kicked-off their own pre-season training schedule on Monday in preparation for their first friendly at lower-division Wuppertaler SV this weekend.
“My first impressions are very good,” the teenager told borussia.de. “Borussia seems to be a very family club. The fans come to the training to see us. This support is great.
“The training is a bit different than I'm used to from England, but that is good for me, because I feel that it brings me to a very good fitness level.
“There are not really big differences [between pre-season in Germany and England], but I have the impression that in the training here, even more emphasis is placed on the running! This is exhausting and new to me, but it is good for me and my fitness and will help me in the coming season to be able to give everything on the pitch.”
My first impressions are very good. Borussia seems to be a very family club
Reece Oxford
Oxford joins an experienced Monchengladbach squad for the upcoming season, including Switzerland international quartet Yann Sommer, Denis Zakaria, Niko Elvedi and Josip Drmic and the man who scored Germany’s title-winning goal at the recent FIFA Confederations Cup, forward and captain Lars Stindl.
With players from Belgium, Denmark, Brazil, Sweden, France, Italy, the Netherlands and United States also in Dieter Hecking’s squad, Oxford is enjoying meeting his new group of teammates.
“I'm looking forward to the training camp, even though we are probably going to run even more than now! I just want to get fit with the team for the new season and get to know everyone. In such a week you get to know each other even better. This is important in order to feel comfortable and then to enter the games with confidence.”
Five-times Bundesliga champions Borussia kick-off their 2017/18 campaign with a home fixture with 1. FC Koln on the weekend of 19-20 August.
The weekend before, Oxford and company travel to Rot-Weiss Essen in the first round of the German Cup – a competition Monchengladbach have won three times in their history.
The England U20 international is looking forward to testing himself in the competitive environment of German football.
"In my opinion, the Bundesliga is the league most similar to the Premier League. It is a strong, balanced league with big teams like Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund or Bayer Leverkusen. I'm really looking forward to the start of the new season and we can play against these teams."