Granit Xhaka has played a key role in Sunderland's success this season. Sunderland returned to the English top flight after an eight-year absence, and has exceeded expectations.
Sunderland and Switzerland captain Xhaka returned to England last summer. He spent seven years at Arsenal, from 2016 to 2023.
He also enjoyed great success at Bayer Leverkusen, winning the league title without a single defeat, and the German Cup where he scored the winning goal. The 33-year-old won the FA Cup twice with Arsenal.
In the full interview published on Saturday, Xhaka spoke about his career, but also revealed the two most difficult moments.
"I had two difficult moments. The first was when I left my family as a 19-year-old in Germany. It was very difficult for me. Everyone knew how close I was to my family and leaving was difficult. I didn't have many minutes on the pitch and I wanted to leave in January after six months. But I had my father behind me. He said, if you leave now you'll always be gone, so I put my head down and worked. I did it and everything changed. The second difficult moment is no secret. It was 2019 when I had this. I call it a misunderstanding with the Arsenal fans. Two moments where I think I became stronger and better, because it's part of the process. It's the part where the whole story is written. On the one hand, very bad. On the other hand, I was lucky to experience it," Xhaka declared.
The 33-year-old has played 23 games this season, scoring one goal and providing five assists. He has been out of action recently due to a muscle injury. However, he had played all the games up until the injury.
