RB Leipzig Goalkeeping Coach Bräutigam: Subrata could play 2.Bundesliga!

German fourth division (Regionalliga Nordost) club RB Leipzig are not going to sign Indian international goalkeeper Subrata Pal ( RB Leipzig: Subrata not selected, but club to invite him again ), but at the club they were all praise for the Indian keeper. Interestingly RB Leipzig's Goalkeeping Coach Perry Bräutigam, a former East Germany international, nicknamed Subrata as 'Air India' for his as he termed it his 'acrobatic flying abilities'. Here is what Perry Bräutigam told me about Subrata Pal...


Was this the first time you trained an Indian goalkeeper?

This was the first time. I have had contact with loads of footballers from around the world, but so far I have never had to do something with Indian goalkeepers or even a footballer from India.

It was a lot of fun to work with Subrata then he is eager to learn and brings with him a certain quality. A real joy for me as a goalkeeping coach to work with him.


If we go into a little bit more details. What do you rate as his strengths and weaknesses?

For a goalkeeper he has a very good technique, while his biggest strength is the ability to react, he is also quickly down on the ground; but due to the lack of height he has problems with the higher balls though with his acrobatic jumping ability and agility he can cover a lot for the lack of height.

But I cannot really judge him on crosses and high balls then I didn't see him in match action which you need to see to be able to make a fair judgement.

And coming back to his technical abilities, you see that he is a playing goalkeeper whom you can play back the ball in difficult situations.


If you had to judge at which level Subrata could play in Germany, what would you say?

That is very difficult to say because here I would have to speculate besides having the talent, there is also the luck factor which decides if a keeper can make it to the top or gets stuck in the lower leagues.

I think that Subrata could play in the 2.Bundesliga!

But as said earlier, I haven't seen Subrata in match action which would help me with my judgement. What I have seen in training, the way he integrated into the squad was sensational which we don't always have with different nationalities. There were no problems with him and one could see that he had become a part of the team in his short time here at his farewell.

I think he enjoyed his time with us and has learned something for his career, and hopefully we will have him back with us soon.


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