Tom Starke in the hot seat

Tom, this is your first training camp as an 1899 Hoffenheim player. What are your impressions of the surroundings of Leogang?

It's a very down-to-earth hotel - certainly not luxurious, but it has everything that we need. The same applies for the training facilities; they're similar to what we have back home. They're providing everything for us here so that we feel as comfortable as possible, and so that we can prepare ourselves fully for the upcoming season.

You're sharing a room with Andreas Ibertsberger. Has he been able to explain to you a little about his home country, Austria?

A little bit, yes. But we're always too tired and sleep early - we're not the youngest of players any more (laugh). But there have been a few opportunities to talk about certain things in a bit more depth.

In the second part of last season the media were reporting a bad atmosphere in the Hoffenheim camp. Can you confirm those rumours?

Of course I read all of the reports and I often wondered how the atmosphere was within the team. However this is certainly not the case! After spending four weeks here I have experienced no such ‘bad atmosphere'. It is positive, and I can only stress that everybody made it very easy for me to become part of the group here.

And how is your relationship with your fellow goalkeepers in the squad?

Like I said: the atmosphere and mood is very good, and it's exactly the same with the keepers. We're all pulling in the same direction. Only the coach can decide who gets the nod on the matchday, but I have come here to be the number one for Hoffenheim.