Christopher Lenz stepped in to replace Nicolai Rapp in this week's magazine interview ahead of Friday's 2.Bundesliga match at home to SSV Jahn Regensburg. Christian Arbeit chatted with the 24-year-old about his early years in Berlin and his time at Holstein Kiel on loan last season. The full interview can be found in the stadium magazine, which is only available in German.

CA: Let's talk about the professional football career of a real Berlin boy who started playing football very early - at the age of four or five.

CL: I started playing early with two friends. We were a bit younger, we had to play in the 1993 age group because there was no team for ours yet. We started in the area around Stern Marienfelde. But I only played there for one year.

CA: Did you notice that it was fun for you and then the blue-and-white scouts came and found you, or did you ask yourself if you could switch to Hertha BSC?

CL: We were the youngest in the team, and after the year we were supposed to change to the new team for our actual level. However, we were actually already well settled in our team and therefore did not want that. So we stood at the end without team there and then went to the Ostercamp of Hertha and were directly taken over.

Then you were quite long there, from 1999 to 2008. You grew up there and socialised among Hertha people, so to speak, didn't you?

Yes, in any case I went through many youth teams there and experienced everything and also had many exciting games against Union, already in the youth.

Have you lost at least some? 

I don't know, but I lost one for sure.

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It didn't become as easy as you had hoped, which is why you went to Kiel for a year-and-a-half. What does it do to you if you are brought in but don't play? That's certainly a difficult situation for a player.

Sure, every player wants to play. But a lot of things came together. As I said, I was in the training camp with Sascha Lewandowski, had signed my contract from summer as Gladbach wouldn't let me go beforehand. Then there was a change of coach; the new coach brought a few of his own players with him, and I was left out. That happens in football, only one player can play in your position. I then asked the club to let me go on loan because I wanted to play. With Kiel I had the perfect contact person.

Right, and it was a very successful time for you — winning promotion. You were a regular in Kiel and met Patrick Kohlmann, who is now the assistant coach in Kiel.

Kohle, that's right.

Kohle (Patrick Kohlmann) is also an old friend of ours. We are always happy to meet him when we play against Kiel. Describe how it was for you in Kiel? The city, the stadium, the club are all a little bit smaller. How did that feel?

When I was there for the first time, I thought 'okay, it's all a bit smaller here'. But when I was there, I noticed that it was the right decision. I could play football in peace and be myself. The city was small and you concentrated on the essential things. I lived in a terraced house settlement where almost only families and players from Kiel lived. My neighbour helped me to mow the lawn, another helped me with something to drink when I had nothing left at home. The whole town was like a small family, and even when we were very successful in the 2.Bundesliga. Didn't matter if we were first place or on third place, we could always work in peace. One was not super-imposed, no pressure was exerted from outside. We knew what we wanted and what we could do, and they held on to it.

We were in Kiel twice — the first time it was windy and cold. Doesn't this weather finish you off in the long run? 

We are used to it there. You can enjoy the few hours of sunshine by the sea, which compensates for the cold. But there were already a few days when you look out of the window in the morning and the sun shines, and as soon as you arrive at the training place it starts to rain, after a while it's nice again, you can grill at home, and in the evening it rains again. It was already a lot of back and forth. But even at 5°C people still sit around outside, they are used to that.

In summer you came back to us as the club planned. Now you are experiencing a season that is rather unusual for you and your colleague Ken Reichel at left back. You look at the squad plan every week and see whether you're playing or not. It is certainly complicated to deal with it.

Emotionally, it's of course the best to be on the pitch, especially when you're playing in your own stadium in front of the fans. It's not easy to be in that situation and watch from the stands or from home. But we're all professionals, we just have to accept that. I think the most important thing is that we notice that especially this year: it doesn't matter who is playing. The whole team is behind it. That's how we push each other in training. We also have a lot of conversations with the coach, so you know exactly why you play or not. Whether you can always fully understand that is another question. But it only helps to keep going and hope to play