Last week, Rüdiger showed me how to properly spread my wings as a goalkeeper bee. Today, I'm watching the outfield players go through their paces. Back in his younger days, first-team star Mario Götze often built up a sweat on the training pitches at the academy. It's clear that all the hard work paid off in the end!

At the BVB Evonik Football Academy, youth players have the opportunity to improve their skills in various different types of courses. Using all of my special bee powers, I was able to help one of the coaches prepare the training sessions for a development course. I worked alongside the coaching staff to lay out a dribbling obstacle course, and it goes without saying that I then navigated it myself. At 2.25-metres tall and with very big feet, it's safe to say it wasn't one of the easiest things I've ever done! At the end of the development course, the participating children play a final game in which they put all the skills they've learned to the test. This means football shirts have to be given to each and every one of them. Since none of these shirts are the right size for a bee, I just decided to play without one. It's a good thing I'm Black & Yellow!

Whenever I play the perfect pass to a teammate or hit the top corner with a shot, I know all those early starts on Sunday mornings have been worth it. That being said, there's one thing I didn't have to learn: how to celebrate a goal! I do enough of that in the most beautiful stadium in the world!

If you also want a chance to shine on the academy training pitches, then click here to find out more about our intensive development courses.