"I think he can go as far as he can conceive in his mind."
Nate Weiss, former VfB Stuttgart technical coach
Watch Bayern Munich vs VfB Stuttgart live on Sky Sports Football on Saturday October 19, kick-off 5.30pm
You will have heard the story many times. It is the one about the teenage prodigy who was always better than the rest, earmarked for greatness from an early age, destined for the very top of the game. But that is not Anrie Chase’s story. His story is different.
When most of his peers were already signed up to elite academies, Chase was playing basketball in Texas. He subsequently moved to Japan, only kicking his first football at the age of 12. In September, he marked Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior in the Bernabeu.
That test, perhaps the ultimate in football right now, came just three weeks after his professional debut for Stuttgart. When Nate Weiss, his former coach at the Bundesliga club, talks of Chase being “birthed by fire” you take the point. It is some rise.
Anrie Chase is Next Up.
“Two years ago, he was in the second team and he was on the bench,” Weiss tells Sky Sports. Chase had the physical attributes in his favour but the rough edges were too much for some to ignore. “It was very hard for a lot of coaches to see the talent in him.”
Weiss, Stuttgart’s American first-team coach, now working within the setup at Bayern Munich, did see it, warming to Chase partly due to their shared heritage. They would spend hours getting him up to speed, the work often instigated by the player himself.
“After everybody would go home, he would ask me to go juggle the ball doing two-touch in the weights room. We would do that every other day because he knew he needed to work on his touch. And it was just constant, constant work. That had to come from him.”
Chase realised that he was playing catch up. Born to an American father and a Japanese mother, he had not been exposed to the game during early childhood. He even joined Stuttgart direct from high-school football in Japan rather than a club setup.
It was a huge step up for him at the age of 17. “All the other kids had seven years more experience than he had. But this kid was obsessed with getting better. There was not a moment when he did not want to train. If I were not around, he would go out by himself.”
Weiss remembers the “constant technique training, passing exercises every single day” but mostly he just remembers the attitude that the young defender brought to his work. Even in that environment, at one of Europe’s best clubs, the dedication was unusual.
“If you tell a player to run 100 metres as fast as they can, most players understand what that means. If you ask them to concentrate for the next three-and-a-half minutes during the next possession exercise, they do not really know what it means to give 100 per cent.”
Chase was an exception. “He understood how to concentrate, how to do his recovery, how to do all of it. Very few young players today really understand what that means but he did. I use Anrie as an example when I am coaching. Those are the ones who make it.”
It was tricky at times. Weiss rates the standard of training last season as the highest that he has known, Stuttgart beating Bayern Munich to second in the Bundesliga. Chase was in every session, playing one-touch with Deniz Undav and the rest.
“In the beginning, the other players would yell at him because he was not good enough. They would literally be screaming because he was constantly playing bad passes, constantly under pressure. He was not doing well. Eventually, he started catching up.”
There was a moment towards the end of the season when Undav complimented him on his transformation. He had won the trust of his team-mates. “I saw the development in front of my eyes,” says Weiss. “When I look back, I get goosebumps thinking about it.”
Looking back, the high standards helped him. “This kid is a product of his environment. You see him now and he can play these quick passes. He has been raised on this because it is the only football environment that he knows because he started so late.”
Sebastian Hoeness, Stuttgart’s head coach, deserves credit for keeping him around. There was a time when Weiss had felt like a lone voice when backing the player. Others had seen the flaws in Chase’s game. It took Hoeness to see the possibilities instead.
“He was the first to judge the player subjectively,” explains Weiss, “to see Anrie’s development within the context of his young career. You have to have that imagination to see what he could become. That is why I give Basti as many flowers as I can for this.”
Jurgen Klopp was known to be intrigued by those players who had extreme talents, outliers who were capable of things others were not. He reasoned that he could work on the weaknesses, hide them within his system. He wanted players who had special gifts.
Chase, a defender of prodigious speed and strength, fits the bill. Weiss uses an analogy to highlight this point. “If I were to show you a boy who could jump five metres but then you do not see him do it again, you would still know he had the ability to do it,” he says.
“Anrie would have situations in training where he would do something that was at a very high level. You might not see it again for 45 minutes or even a week. But if he could do it once, what if he could do it consistently? Basti recognised that. He saw the potential.”
Even in his brief senior career so far, there have been those moments that showcased his potential. Standing up to Vinicius was a highlight, even when being asked to play out of position at right-back. In the long term, a move to the centre of defence is inevitable.
“He has a profile that a lot of players do not have. He is a giant. He is very strong. He is fast. He is incredible in the air. So, if we could just get him to do the simple things, he would be great. It was about getting the basics right so he was clean and consistent.
“In the beginning, he needed to learn how to pass the ball with no mistakes. Then it became about making progressive passes, thinking about the game a bit. When you watch him now, he can see those passes during the build-up and it looks sharp.”
Clearly, a certain technical standard is now essential. But the move towards multi-functional players – defenders who attack and attackers who defend – has gone so far in one direction that Chase’s journey is a reminder that there is another way.
“A lot of players now want to be that centre-back who can dribble like Neymar. They want to be world class at everything. But if you are a young player who focuses on doing one or two things at a world-class level, you have a chance of making it to the top.
“He is an example for young kids to focus on doing one or two things exceptionally well. Anrie has this ability to defend and to head the ball, to win duels, and he does that at a world-class level. That is his weapon. If he can do the rest clean, then that is enough.”
Enough for what? “I think he can go as far as he can conceive in his mind.” Chase’s regular involvement with Stuttgart is only going to fast-track his development. In Weiss’ opinion, he has already taken the biggest leap. “The next step is easier,” he insists.
“Two years ago, this was inconceivable. The step from where he was to where he is now was much bigger than the step to the very top now. Here was a kid who started with a blank piece of paper at 12 years old. At 20, he is playing in the Champions League.
“I think it is a f***ing fantastic story.”
Anrie Chase is Next Up.
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