“He has that certain something”
With long strides, Hugo Novoa (19) marches from the center line in the direction of the opponent’s penalty area, where he awaits a pass from his teammate Dominik Szoboszlai (21). When the pass comes, the young attacker appears from the shadow of his opponent and pushes the ball over the line from a short distance – to the 4:1 final score against Greuther Fürth on the 9th matchday. For the attacker from RB Leipzig it was the first goal with the professionals, and on top of that on the debut. “A dream comes true,” Novoa commented on a photo of his celebration. Never before has a talent trained in the RB youth team scored a goal for the first team.
A lot has happened for the youngster since that afternoon in October 2021: After seven more games and a total of 223 minutes on the pitch, he recently became the most-used homegrown player in the history of the “Red Bulls” – that was the result of a query in the TM database . Although the goal against the “Kleeblatt” remained his only goal involvement so far, he was one of the winners in the last Bundesliga update when he increased his market value to 1.5 million euros. “He has that certain something,” said coach Domenico Tedesco, who put Novoa in the starting line-up for the first time on Matchday 20 against VfL Wolfsburg. Before the Spaniard, no other homegrown player in Leipzig had managed to do that either.
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After his substitutions, Novoa “helped and didn’t disappoint us. On the contrary: He did very well and worked very well during the week,” said Tedesco about the debut of the starting XI. Only a little later, the RB managers rewarded the talent with the first professional contract, which is valid until 2024. Originally, his contract would have expired next summer. With that, Novoa manifested its status as an “integral part” of the first team, as technical director Christopher Vivell explained. The club is sure that Novoa “will give us a lot of joy”. The talent has not finally arrived, however, his former coach Marco Kurth clarified in an interview with Transfermarkt. All those small accomplishments wouldn’t mean “he’s a pro.”
Born in Saxony-Anhalt, he has held various roles in Leipzig since 2017, but his time there ended shortly after the turn of the year when Tedesco took over as the new head coach. During his time with the “Red Bulls”, Kurth was almost always at Novoa’s side: first as his coach with the U17s, then with the U19s and until recently as a co-coach with the pros. Kurth knows the talent very well, who moved from Deportivo La Coruna to Saxony in 2019 at the age of 16, at the time without sufficient knowledge of German, let alone English. The player was “very shy” at first, which made the start “not so easy” for everyone involved. “It really was work, it still is.”
Kurth: Player types like Hugo Novoa “not so common anymore”.
“We have always had a very demanding approach. He challenged me with his character and I challenged him with my demands,” says Kurth about the sometimes “not easy” relationship with Novoa. But it would also make the job “to work with guys like that”. Everyone in the club knew “that Hugo has extraordinary abilities”. In 30 games for the various junior classes of the “Red Bulls”, he collected 19 points before being promoted to the first team. Those responsible were unsure “how it will be for him up there (with the professionals; ed.), the air is thin,” says Kurth. A player has to “prove himself there”.
Kurth provides an answer as to why Novoa of all things is the first talent among the professionals to play regularly: “I think that the type of player who can solve things is not that common anymore.” It’s his strengths in particular in dribbling, which are always emphasized at Novoa. In a direct duel, Novoa is “difficult to control,” explained coach Tedesco recently. “Even in training, for Josko Gvardiol, for example. If you’re talking about a very good central defender, then on the other hand you’re also talking about a very good offensive player.” In Germany in particular, this would “not happen that often”. Novoa also combines his qualities in dribbling with his speed and endurance as well as with “very good” finishes and crosses.
All in all, Novoa is “quite complex”. According to the ex-coach, the next step must now be to convert these qualities into scorer points. How regularly Novoa can demonstrate his skills in a game also depends on whether there is actually a place for him in the squad. In the last two games against 1. FC Köln and FC Bayern, the Spanish junior international was only allowed to watch 90 minutes from the bench. “We don’t need to talk around it: when everyone is available, it’s not so easy for a young player to play in our squad,” said Tedesco. “It’s good for the lads to be with us in training, but they have to play in the long term.” On Thursday (9:00 p.m.) the “Red Bulls” meet Real Sociedad in the UEFA Europa League.
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