The 18-year-old defender's name has been printed on more than 1,000 shirts and his performances have been increasingly impressive
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“Er ist ein monster, auf jeden fall,” was how Hamburg full-back Miro Muheim described Luka Vuskovic, following his performance against Union Berlin a week ago.
“He is a monster, for sure.”
That weekend, Muheim, Vuskovic and newly-promoted Hamburg travelled to the Alte Forsterei, Union Berlin’s bearpit home, with a plan to sit deep and counter. It worked; they left with a 0-0 draw that could even have been a win. That they did so owed much to a penalty save by Daniel Heuer Fernandes in the first half, but also Vuskovic’s aerial dominance, which repelled the hosts’ direct attacking time and again.
Union sent 23 crosses into the HSV box that night. Vuskovic cleared 12 of them. In total, from the middle of a back three, he won 18 aerial duels across the course of the match, becoming the first player in five seasons to do that in a game played in Europe’s top-five leagues.
That aerial presence has made him tremendously valuable. HSV are not a particularly tall side and Fernandes, their goalkeeper, is not huge for his position at 6ft 2in (188cm). Since making his debut against Bayern Munich in the middle of September, Vuskovic has been ever-present, playing every minute, and it is not hyperbole to say the protection he offers is now essential. It is also obvious: Vuskovic was voted the Bundesliga’s
rookie of the month on Monday.
Within the context of his new team, there is actually a nightclub bouncer-like quality to Vuskovic, who is on loan from Tottenham Hotspur. He is rough and rugged, in a way that an 18-year-old who looks like he has never seen a razor has no right to be. Being tall and having a strong leap gives him an advantage when competing for crosses and corners, but he uses his frame — his shoulders, his elbows — in a way that accentuates those physical strengths.
He has an intimidating streak, too. In his first home game against Heidenheim, he missed a good chance from just under the crossbar. In his frustration, he shoved a visiting defender into the back of the goal. The defender untangled himself, spun around incredulously, but then thought better of it when he saw Vuskovic looming over him.
Vuskovic’s loan did not actually start very well. He made his debut for HSV against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, where they conceded four times in the first 29 minutes and eventually lost 5-0. Against Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Luis Diaz and Serge Gnabry, he suffered. Bayern’s movement was too quick and precise, and it was too much for an 18-year-old to cope with; Vuskovic’s defending was frantic and reactionary. He looked lost.
That HSV head coach Merlin Polzin saw fit to immediately start him against Kane, the Bundesliga’s apex centre-forward, says plenty about his faith in Vuskovic’s resilience; there are plenty of senior players who lose their ego to the England captain. But Tottenham sent him to Germany to learn those lessons.
The other reason Spurs sent him to Hamburg is because, in a strange way, it is home.
His older brother, Mario, is also a HSV player, albeit one serving a four-year suspension for a doping violation. Mario will be 24 by the time that ban ends next year and the club and fans have remained unflinchingly in his corner; they believe he was failed by an imperfect testing procedure.
For Luka, that created the perfect move. Several members of his family still live locally and his brother is a local cause celebre; it is hard to think of another loan player, who has no realistic chance of staying permanently, ever being welcomed in quite the same way.
In essence, Luka has been an emotional proxy for Mario. When he signed, he was given his brother’s shirt number — 44 — and the emotional response in the weeks that followed was quite something to witness.
Minutes after that missed chance on his home debut against Heidenheim, he scored. It was HSV’s first goal in the Bundesliga since 2018 (previous scorer: Lewis Holtby) and he celebrated by pointing up to his brother in the stands, as the stadium announcer led a call and response that could have parted the clouds in the sky above.
HSV spent seven years in the 2.Bundesliga, struggling to return. Mario Vuskovic’s suspension in 2022 was part of that struggle, another painful situation to overcome. And so at the end of that long climb back, for his brother to score
that goal? Truly, an incredible moment.
But as seductive as this surrounding narrative is, Luka Vuskovic’s task in Hamburg is to develop — and that process is under way. His positioning has been steady and dependable, and he chooses his moments to jump out of the line well. He is not really a carrying centre-back who takes on the press, but his passing is reliable without being exuberant. In Tottenham terms, he is more Micky van de Ven than Cristian Romero, placing the emphasis more on what he does without possession.
He has not been perfect. He was against Union and again this weekend in a 4-0 win over Mainz. Two consecutive clean sheets with him at the heart. But either side of his goal, Heidenheim rattled him and so, obviously, did Kane. In both matches, the Bundesliga looked too quick for him and there were reminders — in hesitations and little mistakes — that he is still a teenager, taking his first steps in a major European league.
But in the weeks before the international break, the game has slowed down around him. There has been more control. More proactive actions, fewer reactive ones. He makes errors, but only once and so, perhaps, adversity is part of the journey for a player of his potential. There is more coming. In the second half of the game against Union, Warmed Omari — HSV’s first-choice centre-back on the right side — was injured and will miss the rest of the year. Vuskovic, at 18, now has even more responsibility within a defence that will face RB Leipzig immediately after the international break and Borussia Dortmund at the beginning of November.
The supporters adore him. They were always going to, under the circumstances, but he has quickly become more than just Mario’s brother. According to the club, 1,000 replica shirts with L. Vuskovic printed on the back have already been sold, and he is already seen as a determining factor in the club’s Bundesliga survival. That is a ridiculous expectation to lumber on such a young player, but then this is one of the few times that one of football’s child stars — a name everyone has known for years — seems not only worth the hype, but at ease with it.
