The highly-rated Germany U21 international midfielder is paying little attention to transfer talk for now as he continues to thrive in Berlin <\/p>\n
Arne Maier is \u201cliving the dream\u201d at Hertha and has told Goal that he enjoys the \u201ctorture\u201d of trying to maintain the standards which have seen him linked with Arsenal and Manchester United.<\/p>\n
At just 19 years of age, the highly-rated midfielder is being billed as one of the most exciting prospects in European football.<\/p>\n
He is now an established star in Berlin and a regular for the Germany U21 side, having progressed through the youth levels with his country from the U15 set-up.<\/p>\n
Article continues below<\/span> <\/p>\n Juve on alert: Exiled Icardi may have already played his final game for Inter Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over <\/p>\n Big things are expected of Maier, but he claims to be relishing the challenge of proving himself at the very highest level.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is always a nice feeling to be praised,\u201d Maier told Goal.<\/p>\n \u201cBut no matter how much I may be praised at the moment, on the field that does not help me. There I am on my own and every time I have to go to my limits and not rest.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I want to emphasise that I like this torture. I’m living my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n Maier\u2019s efforts are already seeing him linked with leading sides from the Bundesliga, Premier League and beyond, but that is nothing new for a youngster who was targeted by Ajax, United and Bayern Munich shortly after his 13th birthday.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, on the one hand, it was a cool feeling that such big clubs were interested in me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other hand, I was only 13 years old, had my school in Berlin, my family and my friends, which is why I decided against a change at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n It may be that Maier\u2019s future lies outside of Hertha, with Arsenal and Juventus\u00a0reported to have joined the hunt for his services, but for now he is fully focused on the present.<\/p>\n That includes trying to earn senior international recognition, with there a number of exciting youngsters knocking on the door of Joachim Low\u2019s Germany squad.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Asked to name those most likely to make the breakthrough, Maier said: \u201cFirst of all Kai Havertz [of Bayer Leverkusen].<\/p>\n \u201cI have known him for several years. He is a good friend of mine and I have followed his development closely.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there is not only Havertz, also players like Thilo Kehrer [at Paris Saint-Germain] have a lot of potential and can play an important role in the national team at some point.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, each of us wants to someday play for Die Mannschaft – me too. That’s the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n If Maier is able to take that step up, then he will be following in the footsteps of a player he has looked to for inspiration throughout his career to date \u2013 PSG star Julian Draxler.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was young I saw on TV how he scored for Schalke in the DFB Cup against Nuremberg and was immediately impressed,\u201d said Maier.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the field he has superior quality. He is a great guy that I admire greatly. In my apartment there is one of his jerseys on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n Maier may soon get the opportunity to grace a jersey alongside Draxler, with it expected that an upward career curve will continue for a hot prospect determined to fulfil his potential.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The highly-rated Germany U21 international midfielder is paying little attention to transfer talk for now as he continues to thrive in Berlin Arne Maier is \u201cliving the dream\u201d at Hertha and has told Goal that he enjoys the \u201ctorture\u201d of trying to maintain the standards which have seen him linked with Arsenal and Manchester United….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Editors' Picks<\/h3>\n