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ESPN staff 7y

Atlanta's Julian Gressel ready to face 'personal idol' Bastian Schweinsteiger

Julian Gressel is ready to go up against his "personal idol" Bastian Schweinsteiger when Atlanta United take on the Chicago Fire on June 10.

The German-born midfielder has been a long-time admirer of the German World Cup winner since he was a youngster, and even had the chance to meet the veteran star when he attended a Bayern Munich game with his grandfather at the age of 10.

Schweinsteiger was injured and watched on from the stands, giving Gressel the perfect opportunity to approach him for a chat.

"I'm a very, very big Bayern Munich fan," Gressel told MLSsoccer.com. "I just went up to him and [said] 'hi' like a little kid fan.

"My mom is very, very anxious about that game.

"It's going to be special for me, but I'm going to be playing against him so I don't want to be nice to him. I want to beat him."

Despite being a rookie -- Gressel was the eighth overall pick in this year's SuperDraft -- the midfielder has already started in all four of Atlanta's matches to date.

Having learned his craft in the same Germany academy system that Schwinsteiger hailed from, Gressel has utmost respect for the latter, for making it in such a tough league like the Bundesliga.

"It's how he bosses the game, how he controls the tempo, how he takes his first touch," Gressel added.

"There's so many things you can learn that I try to look at and try to do myself sometimes.

"It [the German academy system] gave me a great foundation, a technical foundation and tactical foundation of the game."

As for his future, Gressel is well on his way to becoming a MLS star and already has a nickname in Atlanta known as "Gresselmania," something he finds "cool" even though he doesn't follow wrestling.

He said: "We were going onto the field to warm up in Seattle and it was pretty quiet.

"And we walked out and somebody yells, 'Gresselmania!' Our whole team laughed [and] said, 'Dude, you're a freaking legend everywhere!'"

Gressel will have to wait for a couple of months before the June 10 fixture against Schweinsteiger comes around, and with his mother likely to make her way from Germany where she stays, to catch her son go up against the MLS' latest superstar player.

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