Joshua Kennedy

DWTV:

"One commentator in Australian television has likened your appearance on the football field to Jesus. Is there anything to that you think?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"Apart from the physical looks I don't think there is much to it. The long hair, the scruffy look and the beard and that's about it, I think."

DWTV:

"But seriously, with the hair there, is there some sort of private competition between you and Ioannis Amanatidis to have the biggest hair?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"No, not that I know of. No I've had the long hair now for about three or four years and my mum always says now it's my strength - especially now since I've been scoring goals it's kind of hard to cut it. I'll have to wait and see until I stop scoring goals."

DWTV:

"You're from Wodonga in Victoria, Australia. Tell us about it. What's it like?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"Just a small country town, there's about 30-40,000 people who live there. It's on the border between New South Wales and Victoria. Just a small country town and not much happening - and that's about it."

Wodonga.. a small town in the outback. The arrival of the train is a special occasion here. And the locals think real men don't play soccer.They play Aussie Rules, and the harder...the better.

DWTV:

"Why did you pick soccer?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"I'm not sure to be honest. My brother played Australian Rules, I played some myself. But I started with 5 playing soccer and always stuck with it. I played basketball, tennis and cricket and tried everything else that Australia has to offer but every weekend I ended up playing soccer."

DWTV:

"Back in 2000 you opted to move to Germany, to the Bundesliga - why did you do that?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"To be honest it was a little bit unknown for me, I knew the big clubs like Bayern Munich, Hamburg and Berlin and stuff like that. But I met a manager in Melbourne he wanted to take care of me and look after me and he said we've got a trial in Wolfsburg for you. I agreed and said alright and the next thing I knew I was on a plane to Germany not knowing what to expect and a couple of days later I signed a contract."

DWTV:

"You transferred to Karlsruhe in January of this year. Explain to us what a move to a new club involves. How does it happen? How did it happen in this case?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"Pretty much just got contacted by the Manager or Coach of Karlsruhe, I'm not really sure, just before or after the Christmas break, and we had a chat on the phone and we met up. They made it quite clear that they wanted to have me as soon as possible. And didn't sort of muck around. For me to have a coach and a team say we want you, we need you, was a pretty important thing for me."

So Joshua moved from Nuremberg to Karlsruhe, his sixth club in Germany, after short stays in Wolfsburg, Stuttgart, Cologne and Dresden. He scored in his first match for Karlsruhe. He's added three since then with two assists. And back in February he was voted footballer of the month.

DWTV:

"And how long does it take for you to get used to a new club, to new surroundings?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"For me it's just pretty much the whole ordeal of moving apartments and stuff like that, with my wife and a little child it's not the easiest to get up and move in a couple of weeks. So that was the hardest thing - living in a hotel for four weeks. But football-wise I took maybe one or two weeks to blend in with the team and get used to the guys and it all happened pretty quick."

DWTV:

"You are married to a top sportswoman, Jacinta Hamilton, she's a former Australian basketball representative. How much does her sporting understanding help you do your job?

Joshua Kennedy:

"That's the best thing about having a wife who is a sportsperson also. She knows what I'm going through mentally and physically. Her understanding definitely helps me, especially now that we have children. Well, the second one is on the way. She knows, what should I say, what to do and what not to do to help me in the process of gaining my goals or our goals at the same time."

DWTV:

"Does she like living in Germany?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"She likes living in Australia better. But it's just one of those things that we can't really change. At the moment I'm sort of doing my thing and she's pregnant at the moment. But she's getting used to it, you know."

Joshua flies home occasionally between two league matches...when he plays in international for Australia. That's sixteen thousand kilometres out, and the same again coming back. That all adds up to a lot of airmiles.

DWTV:

"How does it feel to be the Bundesliga's biggest jetsetter?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"It definitely takes its toll on your body and mentally. It's not easy to travel on a Sunday, play Wednesday, come back on the Friday and play again Saturday in the Bundesliga. But for me the first few weeks with Karlsruhe went pretty well, I scored some goals, I couldn't really complain that it took too much toll on me. It is definitely hard travelling so far and coming back to play."

DWTV:

"At the start of your career in Germany you were written off by some members of the German press as a choker. Has something changed in your self-confidence levels since then?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"No, I don't think so. I've always done the same thing. To be honest every Bundesliga club I've been at up until now I haven't really had a chance to prove what I could do. I've played maybe three or four games from the start. At Nuremberg that was the case. And before that I played perhaps 2 from the beginning. This is really the first time that I've had a chance to prove myself in the 1st Bundesliga."

DWTV:

"There must be something different surely in how they treat you here and how things are done. Or is it just coincidence?"

Joshua Kennedy:

"It's not coincidence. I think it's a lot of time and hard work being putting in to everything. Like I said, this is my 8th season now. I think all the hard work sooner or later has to pay off - of being in Germany, of being so far away from home. It's not always going to be a fairytale thing where someone comes here and scores goals non-stop and they're a superstar. That's not going to happen. There are always going to be ups and downs. I've definitely had my fair share of downs and this is just one of the ups."

But now he's out injured and Kick off! wishes him a speedy recovery. Life can be strange...and always good for surprises.