Jan Boller has made his mark at LASK for the time being. The 21-year-old defender from Germany has been one of Linz’s absolute regulars since this season, has made a name for himself as a shoe designer on the side and has finally arrived in the Bundesliga two years after his move to the steel city.
In Jan Boller, LASK secured a former junior international from Germany for their defence in the summer of 2019. Initially, however, the then 19-year-old was parked with cooperation club FC Juniors OÖ in the 2nd division, where he immediately secured a regular place and played a total of 48 competitive games for the club in two seasons. When the Juniors’ coach at the time, Andreas Wieland, moved to LASK as Dominik Thalhammer’s assistant last summer, the Linz head coach also took the German defender with him, who has been part of the first eleven of the current ninth-placed team since matchday five.
“I am very happy with my development. Of course, there are things you can still work on and get better at. I had also read the Bundesliga statistics in that I have the third most intercepted balls so far this season. That spurs you on even more to take a few more steps up the ladder. I was just pleased to get the playing time and appearances and to be able to establish myself here,” Boller sums up positively after his first six months in the Bundesliga. “But there is no reason to put a check mark under it yet. I’m still relatively young and it’s still a matter of taking it up a notch and always developing. ”
Opportunity taken at LASK
After two years in the 2nd division, the move up a level was the logical next career step for the former Bayer Leverkusen youth talent. The fact that the jump to LASK’s professional team took some time is something the blond sees in sporting terms: “As a young player, you naturally want things to go up as quickly as possible. But I think patience is also an important factor. It doesn’t always work out immediately. There are already players at the top who have established themselves and gained experience. Then it’s clear that as a coach you’d rather rely on experience and throw in a youngster every now and then. Especially when it comes to promotion or international starting positions, you naturally want to put the best eleven on the pitch.”
On the contrary, Boller sees his time in the 2nd Division as positive: “The last six months with the Juniors were really good for me because Andi (Andreas Wieland, note) had confidence in me. I was able to show myself and then I think it was deserved that I got the chance at LASK. The way things have gone for me since then is very satisfying for me personally.”
In his first year in the Bundesliga, however, Boller did not have an easy time with LASK. In the league, they clearly fell short of their own expectations in the autumn, were only able to celebrate two wins in a row at the end of the 2021 football year in the current season and are currently only in ninth place in the table. “It was an intense autumn, so it was good for the body that we now had a break. Towards the end of the first half of the season we got into a run, won two important games against Ried and Austria and then you wish there were one or two more games where you could take the momentum with you,” said Boller, who is ambivalent about the timing of the winter break.
Tight competition in Linz
While they mostly struggled at national level, they were able to cause quite a stir on the international stage. In the newly-created UEFA Conference League, the Linz side secured a commanding group victory with five wins from six matches and only one goal conceded, thus securing their place in the European winter. “The fact that we won the group as a team was very important for our motivation and self-confidence. This positive experience was also good for us in the league. The first international matches were therefore very instructive for me, because you can compare yourself with other international teams,” says Boller, attaching special importance to the matches in the European Cup.
With currently nine centre-backs in the squad, several professionals are fighting for a place in the defensive centre of Linz. So far, the German defender has been able to assert himself in the competition against his experienced colleagues. “If you know you’re going to play anyway, then you might try less in training and therefore drag your teammates down with you. That’s why it’s important that everyone gives 100 per cent, so you just keep the level very high in general,” said Boller, whose time in Bayer Leverkusen’s youth team as well as his first experience in the professional team at the German Bundesliga club have prepared him perfectly for his upcoming task.
“The jump from the youth to the professional level is very big in Germany,” said Boller. “Accordingly, it was good that I was able to gain experience with personalities like the Bender twins or Julian Baumgartlinger, who constantly try to help you and speak clearly when something is not right. That’s why it was very good that I was allowed to train there for half a year and that I got playing time with the U19s at the same time. That was a good mix and prepared me well for my time at LASK.”
The 21-year-old defender doesn’t see it as too tragic that it wasn’t enough to make the breakthrough in Germany earlier: “Back then, I had five or six other centre-backs ahead of me. When you have players like Sven Bender, Aleksandar Dragovic or Jonathan Tah in front of you, it’s clear that you don’t get much playing time. Then I was honest enough with myself to admit that, because it’s no use sitting on the bench for half a year or a year and only training. The most important thing for a young player is game practice. That’s where you can get the most out of it, you can develop and adapt to the pace of the game. That’s why it was the logical step for me to find a club where I can gain match practice. ”
Return to Germany the goal
In Linz, Boller has found his feet in professional football for the time being, is set under Andreas Wieland, who was confirmed as head coach until 2024 just before Christmas (“That was very important that there is clarity here, because otherwise there are several venues besides the pitch”), and wants to attack again with his team in the spring after the tough Bundesliga autumn: “We have a few things to make up for and want to take the momentum we went into the winter break with us, so that we also start the second half of the season positively. The mood in the team is very good. Everyone is working hard as a team and on themselves so that we get off to the best possible start in the spring.”
Boller himself only extended his contract until 2023 last summer. At 21, the defensive pro is at a very good footballing age, but he is far from wasting thoughts on a transfer: “Of course the goal is to come back to Germany at some point, but I’m still very young, take everything that comes here with me, give it my all and hope to qualify for higher tasks at some point. But the here and now is LASK and there I want to build on my performance from the first half of the season, improve and then we’ll see what comes.”
Despite the more intensive playing time at LASK, there is still enough time for his hobby as a shoe designer: “If there is a training camp coming up, it will have to wait (laughs), but in general I always have a bit of time for it. It’s important to find a balance, to do something else in your head, to be creative, and that’s why it fits quite well.
