Gersbach relishing chance to shine on national stage
EXCLUSIVE: On the eve of his club's French Cup quarter-final against Les Herbiers, Socceroos defender Alex Gersbach paused to reflect on a tumultuous month since sealing a move to Lens in January.
On the eve of Lens's French Cup quarter-final clash with third division club Les Herbiers, the club's Australian defender, Alex Gersbach, shed some light on the tough reality of trying to forge a career in a foreign country, where learning a language from scratch is as important as learning how to play with your new team-mates.
Shortly after securing a move to the high-profile Ligue 2 club on a six-month loan deal in January, Gersbach was fast-tracked into the first team - an opportunity created by an ankle injury to Egyptian left back Karim Hafez, also at the club on loan.
The 20 year-old Socceroos rising star said the chance to play first team football has helped him deal with a language barrier he never encountered in Norway, where he has been based since joining Rosenborg as an 18 year-old in 2016.
"I had no idea [about French] so I've started learning and working hard on it," Gersbach said. "There's not really much English at all. Everything on TV is French and everything at training and in the change room is said in French. It will be a lot easier to learn than Norwegian because everyone there spoke English. When no-one speaks English you just have to learn it and I think I've got to learn French pretty quickly. "
A combination of assistance from team-mates, some support staff and "sign language, drawing and videos" helps Gersbach to pick up instructions in an environment where, he admitted, the biggest challenge is learning how to gel with his new team-mates within a brand new playing structure.
"I think they're relatively happy with me," he said. "There are a few things I need to work on to gel with my winger a bit more, so far it's pretty good. The coach speaks French and not much English so one of the other coaches will translate a bit. There are also a couple of Serbian guys, one Croatian and a Spanish player so the foreign guys help out with the language barrier."
Gersbach is relishing the opportunity to play Cup football this week, a kind draw providing Lens invaluable exposure on the national stage, not that the match will be easy.
"We're in the quarter-final against a third division team so it's a really good opportunity to make the semi-finals of the French Cup, which would be massive," he said. "I'm not sure what to expect from them. i t is a cup game so anything can happen and they'll be up for it.
"It's a third division team in the quarter-finals of French Cup so they'll be playing the game of their lives. It will be tough."
Away from the pressure cooker environment of the cup, Gersbach drew similarities between the French second division and the Norwegian top flight, where he is still on the books at perennial contender Rosenborg.
"The only difference in Norway was that we were top of the league all the time so teams would always sit off us, especially when we played at home," he said. "It's a little bit different here, but it has similarities in that there is a lot of attacking football at a high intensity up and down the pitch. It's been good so far."
Gersbach is hoping a sustained run of game-time will have his name in the frame for Socceroos selection in March, as new national team coach Bert van Marwijk selects his first squad since taking over the national team from Ange Postecoglou in January.
"With the new coach coming in you’re not really sure what’s going to happen," Gersbach said. "I know they’ve been around watching some of the Socceroos boys. Hopefully I’ll be in the squad when it’s announced."
