EPL news: Josko Gvardiol eyes switch to Premier League
Josko Gvardiol playfully rolls his eyes when the subject is raised of the video that went viral. Despite the RB Leipzig defender turning 21 only last month, he has many tales to tell – from a childhood in Croatia helping his father sell fish to almost quitting football four years ago, his troubles adjusting in the Bundesliga and the two occasions when he came so close to fulfilling his career goal of moving to the Premier League, first with Leeds United and then Chelsea.
But there’s only one place to begin with Gvardiol. Many in the football family have long known of his huge potential, yet the admiration truly grew at a World Cup in which the centre back excelled against almost every opponent – all but the one who departed Qatar with immortality.
“Of course I’ve seen it, many, many times,” he says of the footage, filmed by a spectator in the stands and viewed more than 70 million times on social media, of Lionel Messi jinking this way and that, shaking off Gvardiol before dribbling away from the young defender to set up Argentina’s third goal and all but guarantee place in the final.
“Everyone does mistakes and it’s normal for me to make it. It was hard to stop Messi, but we did it a few times. Of course we are trying to reduce this as much as possible but we are also 2-0 down, just trying to score a goal to get back in the game. We were defending with only me and [Dejan] Lovren, so only two players.”
Growing up, Gvardiol pined to play in the Premier League after watching games with his Liverpool-supporting father, Tihomir, but he idolised Messi and Sergio Ramos, now teammates at Paris Saint-Germain but for so long great rivals in Spain’s La Liga.
“I was a big fan of [Messi] growing up because when he has the ball it is just art,” he says. “Whatever he does it looks so simple, but actually it’s not. I am afraid that we will not see something similar to this kind of player again in the future.”
Perhaps not, but European football’s next great rivalry may emerge this week. On Wednesday Gvardiol will come up against Erling Haaland as Manchester City travel to east Germany for the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie. They have competed against each other once before, in the Bundesliga, and Gvardiol explains why he got the better of Haaland on that day while also naming the toughest striker he has faced so far.
But first, to training. We meet a week before City’s visit, at Leipzig’s state-of-the-art headquarters, where some 600 fans have arrived to watch an open training session, feasting on steaming bratwurst while cheering on Marco Rose’s men during a frosty Tuesday morning. Gvardiol stands out. He’s the only one in short sleeves and still bears the bruising around his eyes from a broken nose suffered before the World Cup. “I was like a panda,” Gvardiol says.
He did not need any help standing out in Qatar. Gvardiol’s trajectory has been strikingly sharp, and that he almost quit the sport four years ago comes as a surprise. “I was 16 or 17 and still on the bench in the youth teams,” he says. “I was frustrated and, at one moment, I was thinking to leave football.”
Career options appeared limited. Gvardiol did not enjoy school and Tihomir’s work was tough, rising at 4am every day at the family’s small apartment to sell fish at the market.
“By the way, I hate fish,” Gvardiol says, laughing. “Imagine being 16 years old and there’s only fish to eat every day at home. I want to try something else.”
Luckily, in his chosen profession, trying something else was not necessary. “I don’t know what happened then but afterwards I started to play and they finally saw something in me, my quality, and in one year I moved to Dynamo Zagreb’s second team. In six months I was in the first team with Dani Olmo.”
Olmo, a product of the Barcelona academy, turns out to be an influential figure in Gvardiol’s career. He made the move from Zagreb to Leipzig in January 2020, six months before Gvardiol, who had another tempting offer. “I had two options, Leeds and Leipzig,” he says. Scouts from both clubs made a move for Gvardiol after fewer than five first-team games for Zagreb.
“[Marcelo] Bielsa was the coach [at Leeds] and I don’t know if you know this but my goal in my career is to play in the Premier League,” he says. “I didn’t speak with Bielsa but of course he sends a few people and they came to Zagreb. I met these guys and they show me, it was something like a plan, how they see me in their style of football. I mean, when they presented it everything looked good and you could maybe see yourself there in that moment.
“I knew that I needed to take a few steps more before I get [to the Premier League] one day. Leipzig is a really good club and I feel good here. It’s important I play almost every game. I am very grateful to Dani Olmo because he was here and I spoke with him a lot of times before I decided to sign.”
When Gvardiol arrived at Leipzig, Olmo was away representing Spain at the Tokyo Olympics. “After two weeks I called Dani and I said, ‘I want to go back to Croatia,’ ” Gvardiol says, laughing. “I knew the difference between the Croatian league and Bundesliga is huge … but oh my God! I came here, running deep, long balls, keep running, gegenpressing. It was too much. And then, after three weeks, it became normal.”
It was towards the end of his first full season at Leipzig that Gvardiol faced Haaland, who was competing in one of his final games for Borussia Dortmund. Haaland did not score and was on the losing team.
“We played there and won 4-1, but honestly it was this period when he wanted to leave, so maybe he wasn’t happy,” Gvardiol says. “I believe he is much better than what he did in that game. We have seen this season in the Premier League what he has done already, and I’m looking forward to this game because I want to play against top-class players. I believe he is one of them and is going to be even better and better.”
Gvardiol’s most challenging opponent was one who failed to live up to expectations in England: Romelu Lukaku. “He’s really big, huge,” Gvardiol says. “It’s hard to see the ball. He was in front of me and you are trying to look for the ball. The problem is that if you get close he puts his hand out, turns you and you’re out of the game. He’s powerful, I don’t know his weight but I believe it’s 100 kilos and he’s even faster than me.”
Gvardiol could have followed in Lukaku’s footsteps by signing for Chelsea in the summer. The Premier League’s big spenders made their move towards the end of a transfer window in which Gvardiol had not planned to leave.
“Phwoar, I was confused,” he says. “I was really confused because one month before the window starts I was upstairs with the sporting director and he says, ‘Yeah Josko, we are not going to sell you, we need you, we believe in you,’ and I was like, ‘OK I am fine with this, I can stay here, I like it here, all I need is to work on myself, to play, to win something else.’ It was like this until the last two days.
“My agent called me and said that Chelsea is extremely interested and, of course, you definitely think about a serious offer from a huge club like Chelsea. Leipzig said they didn’t want to sell me. In the end I really struggled with that decision, but we didn’t make an agreement. It is what it is. I am here and I am fine with this because my idea had been to stay here. One season was not enough. This is my second season, even one more season would be great, but we will see.”
Gvardiol’s Croatia teammates, the Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic and Tottenham Hotspur’s Ivan Perisic, have already told him about London and the Premier League.
One Leipzig player destined for both is Christopher Nkunku, the France forward, who will join Chelsea in the summer in a deal which is yet to be publicly confirmed. Gvardiol is effusive in his praise of Nkunku. “I have never seen before a player like Christoph, he is unbelievable,” Gvardiol says. “Every time I talk with someone about him I always say, ‘Wherever he goes I want to go with him.’ ”
For now, both Nkunku and Gvardiol remain, preparing to face a Pep Guardiola team determined to finally break the spell and triumph in the Champions League. The odds are against Leipzig, yet Gvardiol has learnt to ignore them.
“I always like to say in football that everything is possible,” he says. “The ball is round and you see at the World Cup that Croatia, a small country, with this team got third place. In history, we have won already three medals in the World Cup. Imagine this, a country of 3.8 million people!
“In this game we have to be with positive thoughts and don’t be afraid of anything, believe in ourselves and our quality, and try to win.”
