Going from youth football to the professional world is not an easy mission. Many young talents have not necessarily succeeded in translating this despite great promises. Just 18 years old, Paris Brunner intends to confirm all his talent and not miss this transition to adulthood in his football. A promising striker trained at Borussia Dortmund where he crushed everything in the different age groups, he won the U17 Euro and the U17 World Cup with Germany in 2023. A proving period for him since he was voted best player in both competitions. However, this did not allow him to find a place in the Borussia Dortmund group (1 call-up, 0 appearance).
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Performing in U19 with the Ruhr club where he scored 23 goals and delivered 8 goals in 30 matches in all competitions, he did not get enough positive signals from Edin Terzic last season and from Nuri Sahin during the pre-season. If the German club wanted to incorporate him into its future plans, the main interested party above all wanted to be able to quickly evolve at a professional level that the German team could not promise him. Finally, AS Monaco had won his signature with a check for 4 million euros and the prospect of quickly playing in the A team. However, it was not from the Rocher club, but from its satellite club, the Cercle Bruges, where Paris Brunner has now been playing for several months.
A rise in power
Coming into play against Louvain for the 4th day of the Jupiler Pro League on August 18, then in the Conference League on August 29 against Wisla Krakow, Paris Brunner quickly had the opportunity to show himself before slowly leaving the squad of the Belgian club. Nothing worrying, just gentle management of an 18-year-old player who still needs to assimilate certain requirements of the professional world. Monaco remaining very attentive to him, Paris Brunner is carefully looked after by Cercle Bruges who did not want to put too much pressure on him. However, his playing time is increasing and the confidence placed in him by the Belgian club is felt. Starting twice for fourteen appearances, he scored his first goal on December 19 against Istanbul Basaksehir (1-1) in the Europa Conference League. An important achievement since it allowed Cercle to equalize and thus finish 8th in the group stage, thus qualifying for the round of 16 without going through the play-offs, a first in the history of the Belgian club.
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A nice sign of character for Paris Brunner who was congratulated after the match by his coach Ferdinand Feldhofer: “he is a very talented player, he must continue to raise his level for international and championship matches. It's not that easy. Today he showed what he can do and what he is capable of and I hope he does not look back and continues to develop like this in our structure.» On the right track, Paris Brunner will therefore have to maintain this recent dynamic, especially since the season in the championship is far from ideal for Cercle Bruges. After last year's excellent fourth place, the Belgian team is thirteenth, the first relegation barrier. For Paris Brunner, the opportunities are likely to be more numerous in 2025 since the Togolese striker Kévin Denkey will join the American franchise FC Cincinnati at the end of January. It’s up to him to seize these opportunities…
Pub. the 01/01/2025 22:00
