Marc Roca says he’s excited about his future at Bayern Munich under Julian Nagelsmann

In a recent, lengthy interview with Sport1, Bayern Munich’s Marc Roca insisted that he’s incredibly excited for this upcoming season under new manager Julian Nagelsmann. He only made a total of 10 appearances under Hansi Flick this past season, but he’s affirmed that he is determined and committed to play a big part for Bayern in the future.

Roca has already shown his level of commitment by choosing to forego the Olympics with Spain this summer to stay in Munich and have a full, proper preseason with Nagelsmann and those Bayern players that are not away at the European Championships.

Despite not getting a whole lot of minutes on the pitch last season, Roca is 100% happy to stay at Bayern and work his way into the starting lineups more regularly. Coming from Spain to Bavaria and respectively, RCD Espanyol Barcelona to Bayern, he always knew it was going to take a decent amount of time to acclimate.

“I definitely want to stay with FC Bayern and assert myself here. I only moved to Munich last October and I still have big goals in this club. It was clear that I needed a start-up time in a new country, in a new city and in this big club. Every day I feel like I have to stay here and fight. Because I feel right at home, my German is getting better every day and I understand more and more. This is important. So again: I stay, fight and don’t want to leave this club,” Roca explained.

Photo by S. Mellar/FC Bayern via Getty Images

Realizing that he was never going to be the main man in Bayern’s star-studded midfield, Roca said that while he surely would’ve like more playing time last season, he still was able to benefit greatly from constantly playing and training alongside his teammates. He was never expecting to walk right in and become an automatic starter at FC Bayern.

“Of course I wanted more playing time, but I knew where I was going: to the best club in the world. Everything has not yet gone as I imagined. Nevertheless, I draw a positive conclusion. My teammates helped me a lot to find my way around the club right from the start. I get on really well with everyone. I feel very comfortable at the club anyway,” Roca said.

Ironically enough, Nagelsmann was interested in bringing Roca to RB Leipzig in 2020 before he eventually wound up at Bayern. Jokingly, Roca recalled reading Sport1’s writeup of Nagelsmann’s interest in him at the time and said that he’s looking forward to working under the manager that wanted to bring him to Leipzig just a short while ago; “I read your article (laughs). In fact, my advisor informed me last summer that RB Leipzig and Julian Nagelsmann were interested in me. I hope he still has a positive opinion of me. He will be a very good coach for Bayern. He did an excellent job in Hoffenheim and most recently in Leipzig and improved his players. We’ll be able to learn a lot from him and we want to win titles with him.”

Looking forward, Roca is really relishing the opportunity to have a full preseason in Munich. The circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic last year meant that he did not become a Bayern player until October due to the transfer window being both pushed back slightly and elongated. “I’m also looking forward to being part of the preparation from day one this season. As you know, I moved to Munich just before the end of the transfer window last summer. As a result, I missed the important summer preparation. Now I’m going to start right away. That will work out positively for me,” he said.