At the other end of the world, too, attention was paid to a rather minor sensation, the first appointment of Pascal Groß to the German national soccer team. At least according to one expert who has followed the Groß, Brighton & Hove Albion team particularly closely in recent years: Carlos Mac Allister, Argentine veteran international and father of world champion Alexis Mac Allister, who played with Groß at Brighton before he now switched to Liverpool FC.
“Pascal has made an outstanding development,” said Mac Allister, the elder, into the phone – and sounded as if he were genuinely happy that Groß had come into the focus of national coach Hansi Flick. At the age of 32, which is surprisingly mature for a footballer, Groß is looking forward to his international debut on Saturday against Japan (8.45 p.m. / RTL).
“Of course, we’ve had him on our radar for a long time,” Flick asserted these days on ARD; Groß himself explained in shy words at the DFB press conference in Wolfsburg on Tuesday that this interest had remained completely hidden from him. He has never had contact with DFB coaches in the past six years that he has played in the Premier League. “The nomination came as a surprise to me too, so I was all the happier,” said Groß.
From Bundesliga relegated Ingolstadt to Premier League promoted Brighton & Hove
As luck would have it, Groß was joined on the podium on Tuesday by Robin Gosens from Neu-Köpenick – a professional who, like Groß, was called up to the national team comparatively late and almost exactly three years ago played the first of his 16 games in the A- Eleven was allowed to compete, at the age of 26. He doesn’t think it’s more difficult to attract the association’s attention when you’re doing your job in a peripheral location of a foreign league, Gosens said: “The DFB is so well connected all over Europe that it takes the players abroad has an eye on and knows which services are being called up. I’m very, very sure of that.” But the fact that media perception is different cannot be dismissed out of hand.
For a long time he was “the stranger abroad” who “achieved good success out of nowhere at Atalanta Bergamo,” reported Gosens; when he did score, it was considered a top performance, sometimes wrongly, as he said with amusement.
Gross should have had similar experiences. In 2017 he was relegated from the Bundesliga with FC Ingolstadt and switched to Brighton & Hove, who had recently been promoted to the Premier League. What has accumulated on his speedometer since then reads impressively: 196 games and 27 goals in what is probably the best football league in the world. Nevertheless, the son of former Bundesliga professional Stephan Groß (Karlsruher SC), who was born in Mannheim, had to endure on Tuesday that he was actually only known to nerds in Germany. Which, on the other hand, does not ignore the truth. Pascal Groß’s profile is likely to have remained hidden from the general public.
Carlos Mac Allister said in this regard: “Pascal is super versatile”, so he “basically filled every outfield position in Brighton, except center forward and central defender, but mainly acts in midfield because he has a quirk that I really like: he is responsible, accompanies every attacking play until it is finished, and always seeks the conclusion himself.”
Flick has already stated that Groß will play against Japan
But that’s not all. “He has a good technique with set pieces,” reports Mac Allister, which should make Joshua Kimmich sit up and take notice – and what, secondly, is not even the most outstanding characteristic of Groß. Most notably, Mac Allister gives one of the highest praises possible: “He understands football! And I’m not just saying that.” It coincides with the information that Brighton’s coach Roberto De Zerbi gave national coach Flick: “He said he’s a very intelligent, clever player who makes good decisions.”
The fact that Groß will play against Japan should be taken for granted, Flick himself said in advance that they wanted to see him “in September”. In which position, that should still be open. Although Groß declared that he was nowhere more comfortable than in the so-called eighth position in midfield, the role as a right-back also suits him. In general, he sounded as if the position was of secondary importance to him. He already finds the appointment to be a dream come true. Which doesn’t mean that he would put the date of his possible national team debut on his arm; the birthdays of his parents, his sister and his own are already emblazoned there. “It would be very nice as a reminder,” said Groß: “I’d rather not have a tattoo. That stays for the family.”
