Their careers may have taken different paths between leaving Schalke and joining us, but Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil can both pinpoint one man who played a key role in them reaching the top: Norbert Elgert.
After a modest playing career which saw him sporadically represent his hometown club, Elbert returned to Schalke as a youth coach in 1996 and is the man credited with bringing through the likes of Kolasinac, Ozil, Julian Draxler, Manuel Neuer and many more during that time.
READ MORE FROM SEAD IN THE LATEST ARSENAL MAGAZINE
But what makes him so good?
"Norbert Elgert is somebody you need to meet to learn why he has such an impact," Kolasinac explains in the latest Arsenal Magazine. "It’s not just Mesut and myself who have benefitted from him, there are lots of players both in the Bundesliga and elsewhere who managed to make the step to becoming a professional because of his help.
"It was only really when I met him [that I thought I could make it]. He took me to one side and told me that if I pulled in the right direction, listened to him and did as instructed in the two years I had with him, I’d have the opportunity to break into the senior team.
"When I started working with him, I started to notice the progress - I was improving, tactically I was getting better and my game in general was getting better.
"You go to him as a boy and he moulds you into a man, helps you build your personality. He does that really well.
"You notice during every training session how much he loves his job. That’s why I think Schalke have been so successful at generating young players for the first team.
"A large portion of that is down to Norbert Elgert."
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