Josko Gvardiol is a Croatia international professional footballer, who plays for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga, check out his age and height, career and key stats, playing style, nickname and more.
Despite his young age, Josko Gvardiol plays like a seasoned veteran with his full beard and battled-hardened demeanour further adding to it.
Who is Josko Gvardiol, age, height, contract, salary, FIFA 23 rating and potential and career stats
🚨 Leipzig coach Marco Rose: “Joško Gvardiol will be a RB Leipzig player next season as well. I am the coach and I am asking for that”. 🇭🇷 #UCL
“He is happy here. He said he wants to play in the Premier League, but he didn’t say when!”, told @ArilaSos. pic.twitter.com/jnJj3wE9gu
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 22, 2023
Josko Gvardiol: “I want to play in the Premier League one day. I knew that I needed to take a few steps more before but I really want to play there”, tells @TimesSport. 🇭🇷 #transfers
“At the end Leipzig is a really good club and I feel good here”. pic.twitter.com/t3HVwcdtVb
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 20, 2023
Josko Gvardiol primarily plays as a left-footed centre-back for RB Leipzig and has so far gained 19 caps, and 2 goals for Croatia.
Age and height
Josko Gvardiol is currently 21 years old and stand at a height of 6’1’’.
Josko Gvardiol career and key stats
Gvardiol started playing football as a seven-year-old at the NK Tresnjevka, where his father Tihomir, an amateur footballer himself took him to play. The following year, in 2010, Croatian giants Dinamo brought him their side and he stayed there for over a decade. He then joined RB Leipzig in summer 2021.
During the 2018/19 season, 17-year-old Gvardiol helped his Dinamo side reach the UEFA Youth League quarter-finals but lost on penalties to Chelsea. However, they went on to win the Croatian youth league title.
Josko got promoted to the second team in the following campaign, and after making just two appearances, he got called up for first-team duty. Gvardiol finally made his Zagreb senior debut in October 2019. In the international sphere, Gvardiol played for Croatia starting out with the U14s in 2016. He then made his U21 debut just a month later against Lithuania.
The Guardian named Gvardiol in the list of 60 Next Generation European footballers ahead of the 2019/20 campaign. That same season, Gvardiol featured in 11 league games helping Dinamo clinched the title. The following 2020/21 campaign, Gvardial made his UEFA Champions League debut in the two qualifying matches. Sadly, Ferencvaros knocked out Zagreb in the third round.
Gvardiol’s showcased his top-level credentials during his debut season at Leipzig in the 2021/22 campaign. He made a total of 29 Bundesliga appearances that season and even scored twice. That same season, he made 23 appearances across the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and DFB Cup.
Over the course of that same campaign, he became a full Croatia international, starting every game during Croatia’s bid to earning the bronze medal at the 2022 World Cup. The 21-year-old even scored the opening goal during his side’s 2-1 vicotry over Morocco.
Playing Style
One key aspect of Josko Gvardiol’s palying style is the fact that he is a left-footed centre-back. As such, Leipzig can line up the Croatian player alongside any right-footed partner, with both players totally comfortable in their own positions.
Gvardiol in that respect has a similar playing style to David Alaba. Alaba is perhaps well established, as the world’s best left-footed central defender.
Moreover, many may assume that Gvardiol’s 6’1″ height is a very average height for a physically demanding position. However, Gvardiol makes the most of this height and his key quality is his strength, as he is rarely bullied off the ball by any opponent.
The Croatian international learned how to best use his body in the Croatian league, one of the physically toughest leagues. Moreover, Gvardiol also has strong confidence on the ball, with great skills in bringing possession out of defence as well as playing it to a teammate in a better position.
Nickname
Gvardiol is also known as “Little Pep”. The 21-year-old got the nickname because of the similarity between his surname and ex-Bayern Munich tactician Pep Guardiola. Moreover, in his younger days, Gvardiol first played in central midfield like Guardiola, before Zagreb youth coach Dalibor Poldrugac moved him back to defence.
Leipzig have announced that Gvardiol had signed a new contract until 2027 and his contract with the club earns him almost 60K pounds weekly or 3.1 million pounds annually.
In FIFA 23, Gvardiol has got a rating of 81 and a potential of 89.