"I feel good here" - Gruda ready for his debut | OneFootball

They still exist in professional football – players who step onto the pitch with the same hunger and joy they had as kids in a kickabout with their mates. Brajan Gruda is one of them. “On the pitch, I just try to have fun – like I did as a kid,” he said on Thursday. It sounds like he’s going to give RBL fans plenty to enjoy.

Brajan’s move to RB Leipzig was probably the most eye-catching deal on deadline day in the Bundesliga. The 21-year-old former Mainz man is back in Germany, joining the Red Bulls on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion until the end of the season.

Brajan Gruda is ready for Köln

RBL have been in contact with Brajan for a while, but things got frantic just before the window shut. In the end, he jumped in the car and drove to Leipzig at short notice, as he told reporters: “I’m only here for half a year for now and I need a few things. So I thought it was worth filling the car up and setting off.”

He made the trip with a friend. Now our new number 10 is here, training with the squad and raring to go. “I’m 100 percent fit and feel great,” Brajan insisted, and he’s keen to get involved as soon as Sunday away at 1. FC Köln.

Whether he starts or comes off the bench, one thing’s certain: “I’ll give everything.”

Hoping for plenty of minutes

,That applies whatever role he’s asked to play. He’s featured both on the right wing and through the middle in the past. Managing director for sport Marcel Schäfer explained that, at RBL, he’s mainly planned as an eight or a ten. Brajan agrees – he describes his best position as a “right-sided number eight”. Above all, though, the main thing is “that I can help the team.”

That’s how our new signing has come across in his first few days – and in his first chat with the media too: bursting with love for the game, but grounded at the same time. He’s ready to give everything over the coming months for RB Leipzig’s success.

“I want to help the team qualify for Europe. We all want to play European football. And of course I want to rack up plenty of minutes,” Brajan stressed.

Brajan feels at home in Leipzig

He wasn't a regular in Brighton's side, making 20 competitive appearances in the first half of the season, but only half of them as a starter. He contributed three goals and three assists. Now he’s hoping for more minutes with the Red Bulls and he believes he’s come to exactly the right place to make that happen. “The club and the style of play suit me. The team is top, the coach is top. I feel good here,” the 21-year-old said.

If things go well, one longer-term target could still come be achieved – a place at this summer’s World Cup. “Of course I’d love to go to the World Cup too, but for that my performances on the pitch have to be good,” Brajan knows.

Maybe it helps that he’s the type who doesn’t overthink things on the pitch – he just enjoys it.

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