Brighton’s Luka Vuskovic: ‘I look forward to playing in the Premier League, but it was not my biggest dream’

Most of the tattoos on the left arm of Luka Vuskovic relate to family members and special dates in his young life, but they also include a drawing of Hajduk Split’s Poljud Stadium.

“This is the first stadium I played in and it’s my favourite stadium,” explains the teenage Croatian international central defender of his first club’s 47-year-old home. “It’s collapsing a bit now. It needs a bit of rebuilding, but it’s really nice.”

Vuskovic, at just 19 years of age and over 6ft 3in (191cm) tall, is the imposing pillar of a summer rebuilding project by Brighton & Hove Albion in the centre of defence.

Jan Paul van Hecke left for Tottenham in June in a £52million ($70.3m) move. Vuskovic moved in the opposite direction in July — without kicking a ball for Spurs in a competitive fixture — breaking Brighton’s club transfer record with his £46m switch.

“(The fee) doesn’t matter so much, because it’s just a number. I have to prove myself and I have to do my best and I will try to do it,” says Vuskovic, speaking to a small group of media outlets including The Athletic after his debut in Saturday’s 3-0 friendly win against Roma at the Amex.

Tougher tests lie ahead for Vuskovic than a comfortable 45-minute introduction in the first half against Roma before making way for 34-year-old captain Lewis Dunk. Not least commanding a regular spot amid competition from Dunk, Olivier Boscagli, and fellow summer arrivals Pascal Struijk (signed from Leeds United), and Michael Svoboda (Venezia). Igor Julio and Eiran Cashin are also still on the books, although they are likely to leave before the end of the summer.

“It’s been really easy, because my team-mates and the coaching staff and all the club have been helping me since I came here,” says Vuskovic of his early taste of the environment at Brighton. “Whoever is the best in games, in training, will start. It’s great to have competition. In my position we have a lot of good players and who is best will play, it’s simple as that.”

It will not be quite as simple as that for Fabian Hurzeler, since the head coach has to factor in squad rotation after qualifying for the Europa Conference League after a second successive eighth-place finish under the German last season. A tie over two legs in the play-offs round, almost certainly against Tromso, takes place either side of the visit of Aston Villa on the opening weekend of the Premier League on August 23.

Hurzeler pointed out upon the completion of Vuskovic’s move — on a five-year deal with an option for a further year — that he is “still a young guy who will need time to adjust to the demands of playing for Brighton and to the Premier League”.

Vuskovic is confident that he has chosen the right destination for the next phase of his development, given Brighton’s reputation for improving young talent. “I think it’s the best step for me in my career,” he says. “It’s one of the biggest machines in the world for producing young players, as we could see in the last years, and that we will see in the future. I think it’s a top club, they showed me a top project and it was very simple.”

Vuskovic speaks with self-assured maturity for his tender age. He has grown up fast and he is unlikely to be overawed by the Premier League. Asked if it is a league he always wanted to play in, Vuskovic delivered a surprising response that hints at an ambition to play in La Liga in the future.

“I look forward to playing in (the Premier League), but it was not my biggest dream,” he says. “It’s the best league in the world, of course, and I’m more than happy to play my first game really soon. I’m really happy and let’s say in some way proud.” His biggest dream? “I never think of it as that,” he adds. “Maybe Spain, because it’s the most similar life to Croatia.”

Vuskovic is more advanced than most players at his age, despite the absence of any Premier League pedigree. He already has a World Cup appearance on his CV. That came in June against England, marking Harry Kane in Croatia’s opening group fixture of the tournament in the United States.

Kane scored twice, his first goal a penalty, in the first half of that 4-2 defeat in Arlington before Vuskovic was substituted after 66 minutes of his sixth senior outing for his country. He did not feature in Croatia’s other three matches, which concluded with a 2-1 exit against Portugal in the last 32.

What did he learn from facing Kane and his World Cup experience in general? “That every small mistake costs a lot,” Vuskovic says. “He’s obviously one of the best strikers in the world so it was very difficult. It was nice, because I have really good team-mates in Croatia, although we were obviously not happy with the result.”

Vuskovic has seen plenty of Europe during his pathway to the Premier League. While at Tottenham, he spent the second half of the 2023-24 season on loan to Polish side Radomiak Radom. He moved on loan to Belgian Pro League outfit Westerlo in 2024-25, then impressed in a third loan spell with Hamburg last season, scoring six goals in 28 league appearances in Germany’s Bundesliga.

“My time in Poland helped me as a player a lot,” says Vuskovic. “Then Westerlo, then Hamburg. All those moves were very important and I’m very happy that I went through it all. I’m just 19, so there’s so many things to work on, so much room for improvement. I will try to work as much as possible to unlock all of them.”

Whether that includes external self-analysis alongside the expertise Brighton provide remains to be seen. Vuskovic has been working with Smart 11, a Netherlands-based self-analysis app, as revealed by The Athletic in July. Those preparations often happen close to kick-off before matches.

“I will speak with them (Smart 11),” Vuskovic says. “They are really amazing, I would recommend them to anybody. I started to work with them two years ago. They really helped me a lot, but now at Brighton we also have a lot of analysis, so we will see what happens.”

Van Hecke was seen as a natural successor to Dunk as Brighton’s skipper before moving to Tottenham. Struijk and Svoboda both captained their former clubs and Vuskovic’s leadership qualities were noted during his spell last season with Hamburg. “I’ve been trying to do that since I came here and I will always try to do it,” he says. “It’s how I am as a person.”

If Vuskovic grows into a Premier League regular and leader at Brighton, that club-record fee will turn into a smart piece of business.