Tobias Levels has made the step up to the Bundesliga. bundesliga.de introduce the Borussia Mönchengladbach player.
Tönisvorst at the Lower Rhine is just 30 kilometres away from the Dutch border.
It's no wonder that German and Dutch people live next to each other in that area.
Dutch passport
A Dutch passport is nothing special in Tönisvorst. Tobias Levels owns one, too. He was born on November 22nd, 1986.
Borussia Mönchengladbach's young hopeful grew up in the district St. Tönis and learned to kick a ball at SV St. Tönis.
Joined Borussia in 1999
KFC Uerdingen 05 then attracted the talented player to the Grotenburg-Stadion. In July 1999, Levels joined Mönchengladbach's U15 team.
Levels came through the ranks at Borussia. He was rewarded with a call-up to Borussia reserves and was one of the key players for the team that were crowned Oberliga champions.
"Great development"
"The boy has made a great development and plays consistently well", reserves coach Horst Wohlers said in the winter break of the 2005-06 season. Levels was rewarded with a trip to the professional team's training camp in sunny Spain.
"You can already see that the boy has a future", said Horst Köppel, Borussia head coach back then.
DFB Cup debut
Levels made an impression on new head coach Jupp Heynckes, too. He took part in pre-season and made his first match for the first team in the DFB Cup 1st round match against SV Roßbach/Wied.
19 days later, he made his Bundesliga debut when he came on as a substitute in Borussia's away match in Bremen.
Full debut against Wolfsburg
On October 14th, Levels was rewarded with his full debut. And boy was he delighted after the 3-1 win over Wolfsburg. "Bundesliga, that's just great. You get to play against people you only know from the TV", Levels said.
Levels has become a regular in Heynckes' team - a young, energetic defensive player with his future ahead of him.
No interview
And even if his parents are Dutch and his passport tells the same story, Levels thinks of himself as a German.
That was most obvious when a Dutch TV station sent a team to the Borussia Park to interview Levels.
The interview never came about. After all, Levels doesn't even speak Dutch.
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Try this out. When she is about to say yes or no, pull back and say, "nah, I change my mind" and sort of walk away.
See what she does then. You will have basically turned the tables on her. Tried this a few times, always works.
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