Ivan Klasnic enjoying life at Bolton Wanderers
11:10am Saturday 19th September 2009 in Sport By Marc Iles
IVAN Klasnic is hoping the sun continues to shine on his time at Wanderers.
The Croatia international says he is enjoying life at the Reebok after making a winning start to his Premier League career at Portsmouth last weekend.
The striker, on loan from Nantes, came off the bench to get involved in Gary Cahill’s 89th minute winner, and is also expecting to play a part this afternoon against Stoke City.
So it was no wonder that he spoke in glowing terms about his first seven days as a Wanderers player.
“I was impressed with everything that I saw,” said the 29-year-old front man, who joined up with the Whites on transfer deadline day.
“The stadium is excellent and everyone at the club has a positive mentality. The sun was shining on my first day and we went on to win our game at Portsmouth, so I had a very good week.
“The training sessions have been good, everybody is happy and has a smile on their face and that helped us to do a good job at Portsmouth and get the win. The end result is the most important thing, even though it wasn’t the best match and now I think we can win a lot more. Together we are a good team and we definitely have the quality.”
Klasnic’s positive outlook is hardly surprising, given his background.
After several successful years in the Bundesliga with Werder Bremen, a routine appendix operation in 2005 revealed a rare kidney ailment.
Despite being told that his kidneys could be treated with medication, and his career could continue, by December 2006 he had suffered renal failure and was forced into hospital.
His mother stepped forward to donate one of her kidneys but just a month later, Klasnic was back in hospital again after his body started to reject it.
The family refused to give up hope, however, and the striker underwent a second successful operation in March 2007, this time with one of his father’s kidneys. A few months later he was back in training, and by November that year he lined up again for Werder against Cottbus after defying club doctor’s orders to continue his recovery at such a pace.
The following March he played again for Croatia, becoming the first international footballer to have received a kidney transplant, and that summer he represented his country at Euro 2008, scoring twice.
“It’s important in my life that I win all my battles and the one with my kidney was the biggest of all,” Klasnic reflected. “I think that I can be proud of myself that I have returned to football and I want to be an example for people and young children who have had the same problem.”
Klasnic was speaking to the Bolton Wanderers matchday programme. For the full interview buy the latest edition for £3 this afternoon.
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