kicker reports that Mainz has a plan in place regarding the future of their highly-rated winger Brajan Gruda, who has begun to attract interest from larger Bundesliga clubs.
Mainz is open to selling the winger this summer, and a fee that had previously been thrown around is €50m for the 20-year-old according to Bild, however, the club would want to keep him on loan for this upcoming season. Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and more recently Bayern Munich are some of the teams that have previously been linked to Gruda.
The reason for this is that it would mean Mainz is under no pressure to sell the winger next summer when he has one year left on his current contract. The buying club would secure him a year beforehand and would be assured that Gruda would be receiving regular game time to help his development.
Recently, when asked about the future of Gruda, Mainz director of football Christian Heidel said: “The plan is for him to stay for another year. We will only consider letting him go this year if there’s a really exceptional offer”
This season was Gruda’s breakout season for Mainz in what was overall a poor season which saw them beat relegation on the final day. The arrival of Bo Henrikson got the best out of the 20-year-old, which saw him called up to the senior Germany squad to help with the preparations for EURO 2024.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
