With 5 votes out of a possible 9 in total, Nikola Vasilj has been nominated as St.Pauli’s most impressive player in the 2024-25 Bundesliga campaign.
In modern football, where newly promoted sides often fire tens of millions at new signings in the hope of survival, St.Pauli demonstrated that it’s not always necessary. It was a slow start as they got to grips with the Bundesliga, however St.Pauli never dropped into the relegation places beyond Matchday 11. Alexander Blessin’s men can be more than proud considering they spent a measly €2.25million in the windows.
Playing an instrumental role in their promotion charge last year, Nikola Vaslij came up trumps in our writers’ voting this season. The Bundesliga is notorious for it’s gung-ho, all-out-attack nature; but the Bosnian shot-stopper conceded just 39 goals in 33 games whilst keeping 9 clean sheets in the process. A sizable contribution towards becoming the league’s second-best defence.
At just 29 years of age, Vasilj is only coming into his prime and ought to play a key role as St.Pauli look to hang onto their Bundesliga status next season. At 6’4’’ or 194cm, he commands his box well and exhibits remarkably impressive reflexes for such a big man. It’s also worth mentioning he kept out 4 of 5 penalties he faced this campaign as well!
While he played an important role in securing crucial points for St.Pauli on more than a few occasions, Vasilj’s most rounded performance came in a 0-0 draw with Wolfsburg on Matchday 8. The first of his four saves kept Die Wölfe’s striker Jonas Wind out before the break.
He was called into action again in the second-half as he tipped Amoura’s strike around the post. The Algerian striker had another chance minutes later, but Vasilj raced from his goal-line to narrow the angle and smother with his left shoulder bravely. A final save to deny Tiago Tomas on 81 minutes saw the Bosnian goalkeeper keep out an impressive 2.22xG on the day.
Four other teammates also received a solitary vote each from our squad of writers. Club captain Eric Smith impressed and adapted into midfield as the season progressed. Winter loan signing Noah Weißhaupt added more to their offensive output, while Morgan Guilavogui chipped in with 6 goals and 2 assists. Finally, Philipp Treu worked effortlessly on the left flank to obtain the league’s fourth-highest total distance covered with 379.5km.
