Sami Radlinger was regularly watching Barnsley highlights throughout their promotion season, before he knew he would be signing for them.
The 26-year-old goalkeeper played under Reds head coach Daniel Stendel at Hannover96 where he also got to know midfielder Mike Bahre who spent last season on loan at Oakwell before joining permanently.
Radlinger told the Chronicle: “I have known Mikey for a long time and he’s a good friend of mine. “If you know someone who plays for a team, sometimes you watch their highlights so I saw some of Barnsley’s games last season. They made a very good season.”
Stendel worked with both Bahre and Radlinger while a youth coach at Hannover, before eventually becoming the first team manager. The goalkeeper said: “I worked with Daniel Stendel in Hannover for a long time. We know each other. He’s a very good coach. In the summer he called me to ask if I was interested. We had a meeting in Hannover. It was really nice, we talked for two or three hours. He told me what he wants to do with Barnsley. Then I spoke to Mikey and he only told me good things about Barnsley. It was easy for me to make this decision.”
Radlinger is the second oldest player at Oakwell after Kieffer Moore. He is not the only new goalkeeper this summer as Brad Collins has also joined and is expected to compete for the number one shirt.
“It’s always good to have good competition because it makes you better. Brad is a really nice guy. We have good chemistry in the goalkeeper training which is very nice. Training has been really good.
“It’s nice to be back on the pitch again. I have seen already that it’s a very good group. It’s a little bit weird that I am almost the oldest. But they want to win, they want to run, they want to press high and I think that is very good for the coach because he likes to play that way.”
