Dzenan Pejcinovic has offered a candid assessment of his difficult start to life at VfB Stuttgart while revealing further details about his first contact with Germany head coach Jürgen Klopp.
The 21-year-old completed a €25m move from Wolfsburg to Stuttgart this summer following a breakthrough Bundesliga campaign and immediately made an impression with a hat-trick on his competitive debut. Goals have proven considerably harder to come by since.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with Kicker , Pejcinovic openly acknowledged that his current barren spell qualifies as a slump.
"You could certainly say that," Pejcinovic said. "But as a striker, there will definitely be a few more times in my life when I go through phases like this where I don't score any goals. On the one hand, that's difficult; on the other hand, though, it's important to stay calm and trust in your strengths."
The Stuttgart striker has already demonstrated an ability to work his way through difficult periods. Pejcinovic's breakthrough at Wolfsburg arrived only after a lengthy struggle for regular Bundesliga minutes , while his explosive run of form during the second half of last season ultimately transformed him into one of Germany's most coveted young strikers.
The current spell therefore does not appear to have shaken his confidence.
"For me, pressure is actually normal," Pejcinovic explained. "But I block it out completely because I know what I'm capable of. I already showed that last season, just as I did when I first joined VfB. Now I'm working on getting out of this little slump I'm in right now."
The size of Stuttgart's investment naturally adds another layer of scrutiny. Stuttgart ultimately pushed their offer beyond the €25m mark during a lengthy summer pursuit , making Pejcinovic the second-most-expensive signing in club history.
The striker insists the figure does not alter his own expectations.
"Even before my transfer, I asked myself whether I should even be thinking about it," Pejcinovic said. "Because there will always be outside voices saying, 'He was too expensive.' Still, it doesn't affect my focus on the field. Sure, the transfer fee isn't small, especially for VfB: I know that this makes me the second-most-expensive signing in the club's history.
Like most of his fellow German footballers , Pejcinovic found it difficult to comprehend when Bundestrainer Jürgen Klopp initially contacted him on his personal cell phone. Pejcinovic has already met with the new Bundestrainer and remains firmly on the radar for the senior national team. His first contact with Klopp, however, initially looked suspicious.
"Yeah, that's a funny story: I was at the barber's when I saw his message on my phone," Pejcinovic recalled. "I was a bit skeptical at first because I was expecting all sorts of things at that moment, but not that: 'Best regards,' or 'LG [liebe Grüße], Jürgen Klopp'—crazy. I even had to double-check through a couple of people to make sure it really was his number."
Pejcinovic had been considered a candidate for Klopp's enormous 44-man Germany squad but ultimately remained with the U21s. The striker admitted that the omission mattered to him, while also conceding that his Bundesliga form had not yet justified stronger expectations.
"I wouldn't say I didn't care," Pejcinovic said. "But I was aware that I didn't have the best start to the Bundesliga season in Stuttgart. Klopp told me, 'If you want to be part of it, you have to perform even better.'"
"So for now, I'm just doing in the U-21s what I would have done in the senior national team anyway: giving it my all," he continued. "It's not the end of the world for me. It's more a sign that I need to step it up a notch. And I'm actually all for that."
