facts
Alter: 22
Position: right-back
Club: VfB Stuttgart
Professional games/scorer points: 89/10
Career
Josha Vagnoman is a homegrown player at Hamburger SV. At the Rothosen, the young right-back went through various youth teams up to the U19 level before he joined the Hanseatic team in 2018. The son of an Ivorian father and a German mother made his Bundesliga debut there under Bernd Hollerbach at the beginning of 2018 and at the age of 17 years and 89 days became HSV’s youngest Bundesliga player to date.
In the months and years that followed, however, Vagnoman was regularly absent from Hamburg due to injury. Last summer he left his youth club and switched to VfB Stuttgart for a transfer fee of three and a half million euros, with whom he has signed a contract until 2026.
In the course of his still young career, the up-and-coming professional has already had to contend with an inflammation in his knee, thigh problems, an inner ligament injury, a broken foot, a torn outer ligament, a double ligament tear, a torn muscle and tendon and bone edema.
In fact, the native of Hamburg has never ended a professional season without injuries. Irrespective of this, the lightning-fast defensive man can call himself the U21 European Champion (2021) and winner of the U19 Fritz Walter Medal in silver. With the latter, the achievements of the best young German international players are honored every year. A sign that Vagnoman is to be reckoned with in the future.
playing style
Vagnoman is a player who thrives on his speed which combined with his size and athleticism makes him an explosive player. The 22-year-old likes to get involved in offensive play and brings a lot with him to become a good track player in the long run. Currently, however, the young professional still reveals technical weaknesses and a lack of precision. The latter is particularly evident in crosses that do not reach the teammate. In addition, it must be stated that Vagnoman has hardly been able to develop further over the years. Nevertheless, he is one of the greatest DFB talents on his right defensive side.
Voices
DFB-Coach Hansi Flick: “Josha shows what we expected from him. He interprets the right-back position differently than others and that’s exactly why we took him with us.”
Previously said Flicks already: “With the idea of how he plays football, he can give us quite a bit. We want to support him for next year.”
Josha Vagnoman himself: “I actually assumed that I would be in the U21s. I don’t have much game time right now. Nevertheless, I will arrive with confidence and show what I can do.”
perspective
Whether Vagnoman has a permanent perspective at the DFB obviously depends on how he presents himself to Flick’s team in the coming days. With his statements, the DFB coach indicated that the native of Hamburg could also be part of the national team in the future. Due to his age and his predispositions, the right-footed player could play an important role in the future, at least if he gets his injury susceptibility under control and his performances are more constant.
