Player Talent Scout: Joško Gvardiol

When a clubs pays €20 million for a player who has only played 829 minutes of first team football, you know that there must be something special about that player.

This is certainly the case for Joško Gvardiol.

The 18 year-old defender is regarded as one of the best centre-backs in the world for his age.

Both RB Leipzig and Leeds United had offers accepted for the Croatian U21 international and the player decided to head to Saxony instead of West Yorkshire.

The player explained his decision stating that a move to RB Leipzig went in his favour and would be more beneficial to prepare him for a top-five league.

This is because the Germans proposed to loan him straight back to Dinamo Zagreb, a move that would benefit him in the long term as opposed to moving to the Premier League before he was ready.

Joško Gvardiol is a ball-playing left-footed centre-back. Despite being only 6″1, he’s strong on the ball and has learnt how best to use his body to his advantage. The Croatian is confident and comfortable on the ball. He is also fast, so even if he makes mistakes he can make it back.

Left-footed world-class centre-backs are hot commodities in football. Even more so ball-playing ones. Whilst Gvardiol may lack experience and can’t yet be considered in this category, he has the potential to reach this level and that is why RB Leipzig have signed him.

Gvardiol will remain at his boyhood club for the remainder of the season where he will continue to develop, before linking up with Julian Nagelsmann’s squad for the start of the 2021/22 season.