Josko Gvardiol is the sort of defender you notice. It’s all game-saving blocks and last-ditch tackles, left-footed long balls and towering aerial duels. It would be easy to misinterpret that as him being busy, almost clumsy, the antithesis of Paolo Maldini’s aphorism that having to tackle means a defender has already made a mistake.
That is not the case at all for Gvardiol.
At just 21, the RB Leipzig centre-back appreciates the value of efficiency. He selects his moments to Do Something with the painstaking punctiliousness of a seal crossing orca-infested ocean.
Among all Bundesliga players this season, he ranks only 90th for duels won and 76th for aerial duels won. He does not engage the opposition as often as you might think, you just remember the moments he does. When opportunity arises, he’s there to quickly ensure it disappears again.
It is this meticulous care that means the Croatian prodigy has never been sent off in his professional career. He has received just one yellow card across 2858 minutes of club and World Cup football this season. He’s still not been booked in 19 international appearances and has made just 12 fouls in 22 Bundesliga appearances in 2022-23.
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Having come close to a summer move to Chelsea, Gvardiol remains heavily linked to the Blues, alongside concrete interest from Liverpool and Man City. He admitted earlier this year that a move to the Premier League is his dream, but Leipzig boss Marco Rose is adamant that he will not leave until 2024. A release clause worth £97m comes into effect that summer, although any move beforehand would likely be no cheaper.
Gvardiol’s defensive partner and Leipzig vice-captain Willi Orban knows his game better than anyone else. Orban told i: “Josko is very far in his development being still a young player. He pretty much has the complete package as a defender, and he is still eager to learn to get better.”
As Rose has, Orban admits that Gvardiol would suit Premier League football, but maintains that he’s not off to England just yet. “He could play anywhere; he definitely has the skill set to do so. But as Josko said himself, he likes to be in Leipzig.”
Nicknamed “Little Pep” in Croatia on account of his nominative and play-style similarities to the Man City boss, Gvardiol has been on the radar of top European clubs since coming through the famed Dinamo Zagreb academy in 2019. The son of a Zagreb fishmonger (and Liverpool fan), he turned down an offer from Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds to join Leipzig in 2020.
He has still only played one-and-a-half Bundesliga seasons because of a loan-back clause – it is his international performances which have drawn the most acclaim. Gvardiol made his Croatia debut in the first game of Euro 2020, as a left-back against England. He was a rare bright spark in a disappointing campaign, playing all but 20 minutes of their four games, but mostly went unnoticed to the wider footballing world.
Last summer’s Chelsea interest then raised him to that rare plane of wonderkid mythology – someone that most people would not recognise in the street, yet he was rumoured to be worth £80m. By the 2022 World Cup, he became impossible to ignore.
In the days leading up to the final, a leading Croatian news site ran the headline “Fabio Cannavaro won the Ballon d’Or for the 2006 World Cup. Gvardiol played even better this year”. That may be a stretch, but it is not up for debate that he was the tournament’s best defender.
It is a footballing tragedy that his time in Qatar will be most vividly remembered for his unfortunate semi-final tete-a-tete with Lionel Messi. He was battered and bullied by the august Argentine, especially in the build-up to Julian Alvarez’ second goal in an eventual 3-0 defeat.
Yet Gvardiol was still named in the official Team of the Tournament and only missed out on Young Player of the Tournament to eventual World Cup winner and Chelsea record signing Enzo Fernandez.
He will come up against another of the world’s finest youngsters at the Etihad on Tuesday evening – Erling Haaland. In the reverse leg of their Champions League last 16 tie, Gvardiol not only stopped Norwegian from scoring, but grabbed the equaliser himself in a 1-1 draw, also having the most touches of any player on the pitch (89).
Another display of the carefully measured brilliance he has made his trademark will be needed to marshal Leipzig into the quarter-finals.
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