Vincenzo Grifo: “Expect a close encounter”

Vincenzo, you’ve scored five goals and made seven assists so far this season. That’s quite a good first campaign playing for SC Freiburg so far, wouldn’t you say?

Vincenzo Grifo: I’m very satisfied. Of course, you always hope to play a season like this and now it’s actually happening after a lot of very hard work. I hope that we can keep improving even more.

Freiburg are currently in eighth place, something you probably would not have anticipated at the start of the season.

Grifo: Sure, we are a newly promoted side and our first goal was establish ourselves in the league, which we have done. However, the season isn’t over yet but our current position in the table is certainly impressive.

What are your objectives for the rest of the campaign?

Grifo: First of all, we want to keep as far away from the relegation battle as possible. But we are always only thinking about the next game and we’ll try to collect as many points as we can. We’ll see where we end up in the table after that.

Hoffenheim are slightly higher in the table. Have you been following TSG’s season particularly closely?

Grifo: Of course I still follow and watch Hoffenheim’s games. After all, I have a couple friends still playing for the club. It’s been a long time since I played for Hoffenheim, I think it’s been four years. Many new players have joined and they are playing with a different system now. They also have a new manager, under whom I’ve trained as well, and despite Hoffenheim being our opponents on Saturday, I’m happy about what they’ve accomplished so far this season. I made my Bundesliga debut for Hoffenheim, so I owe them to a certain extent.

Who do you keep in touch with at Hoffenheim?

Grifo: I’m still in touch with Niklas Süle, Jeremy Toljan and a number of other players who I played with when I was there: Denis Thomalla and Andreas Ludwig for example.

What do you expect from the game in Freiburg on Saturday?

Grifo: I think it’s going to be very even. We’re playing at home and know that we are a quality side and will have the fans behind our backs. We’ve produced some really good performances at home, but we also know that Hoffenheim are a strong team and are having a good season. May the best team win (laughs).  

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