Pascal Gross’s running obsession keeps Brighton 'one step ahead' before Liverpool trip
Pascal Gross has emerged as a key figure for Brighton since rejoining the club at the Amex in January, contributing a combined seven goals and assists this season as they prepare to travel to Liverpool on Sunday in the Premier League.
After being part of Germany’s Euro 2024 squad that went out in the quarter-finals, Gross entered and won an 8.4km running race on Juist, completing the course in 31 minutes and 35 seconds and finishing more than a minute clear; the victory only became public after a competitor posted a video on social media. Gross then reported to his boyhood club for pre-season training days later after a spell away, and Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler joked about his restlessness: “I think he’s looking in his free time now: ‘Where can I run a race?’ because he will never stand still,” adding, “ During the off season he’s never the person who can lay on the beach for several hours and do nothing. He always needs to do something.”
Gross has averaged more than 11.5km per match this season and has covered the third-most ground of any player in the Premier League, a workload Hürzeler compared to ageing well: “The older the wine gets, the better it gets.” He was named the Premier League’s player of the month for September and ranks in the top five for big chances created (six), chances created from open play (14) and line-breaking passes leading to a goal (three). Brighton have scored 23 goals after seven games, cited in the article as the fourth-most goals in Premier League history after seven games.
Within Brighton’s squad, Gross is described as a role model for younger players. Charalampos Kostoulas has scored three goals in his past four league matches while playing alongside Gross; Diego Gómez produced a goal-of-the-season contender against Crystal Palace; and homegrown Jack Hinshelwood and midfield linchpin Yasin Ayari are also noted as benefiting from his experience as the team has surged up the table.
Gross originally joined Brighton from Ingolstadt in 2017, the summer the club were promoted, and has managed 75 Brighton goals and assists since that move. His exit to Borussia Dortmund came a year after his first Germany cap, a departure he described as difficult: “It was really difficult,” Gross said. “Only something really special got me out of here. There were a couple of other options [before returning], but Brighton was always the priority. I just stayed in touch with all the lads over the time away. Maybe you watch less of the games or you don’t stay in touch as much any more, it gets less and less. But it never really did.” He is known at the club as the Kaiser and wears a long-sleeve shirt owing to a grass allergy.
Gross’s recent contributions include supplying the free-kick that led to Jaydee Canvot’s own goal in the 5-0 win on Sunday; that assist was his third in a row and gives him the chance to become the oldest player to make it four consecutive games with an assist since Gianfranco Zola in December 2002. He has started every game in all competitions and was the scorer of Brighton’s opening goal in a 3-0 victory over Arsenal last month, an event after which Hürzeler made the earlier comments about Gross’s restlessness.
Brighton face a demanding sequence of fixtures that continues with the trip to Anfield on Sunday, part of a run of five away matches in a row; they drew at Jablonec on Thursday in the Conference League and, after Sunday, will play Manchester City twice in four days — the first meeting in the Carabao Cup — before travelling to Spain to face Getafe. Hürzeler can count on Gross — who has started every game in all competitions — to last the course.