Only Michael Olise can keep up with his numbers! How a former postman suddenly shakes up the Bundesliga
In purely numerical terms, only one Bayern Munich superstar can keep pace with Marco Grüll's start to the season. Of remarkable journeys and liberated qualities.
Werder Bremen spent much of last season scrapping against relegation, and Marco Grüll often looked like one of the players feeling it most. Across 33 Bundesliga appearances, the Austrian managed just four direct goal involvements. From the end of October 2025 to the end of the season in mid-May 2026, Grüll's only scoring contribution was a goal in the 4-1 win at Union Berlin at the start of March. A meagre return for an attacking player.
That makes the way Grüll has exploded into the 2026/27 campaign all the more striking. At times he had already been viewed as a sale candidate in the summer, yet after just four matchdays he has already beaten last season's numbers. He already has six scoring contributions in the league, two goals and four assists.
Harry Kane, Serhou Guirassy, Luis Diaz, Deniz Undav: Werder's breakout star has so far outshone them all to a greater or lesser degree. At this admittedly very early stage of the season, only Michael Olise can match Grüll. The Bremen man shares top spot in the Bundesliga scoring charts with the Bayern Munich superstar, who also has six direct goal involvements, four goals and two assists.
What did Werder coach Thioune recently say about Grüll?
"I don't know whether we at Werder Bremen have ever seen Marco Grüll in better condition," coach Daniel Thioune said after the last match before the international break, when Grüll drove Werder's spectacular comeback with one goal and two assists, which ended in an important 3-2 home win against FC Augsburg. After a fine dribble, he pulled it back to 2-1 with real conviction, and after the somewhat fortunate build-up to Niclas Füllkrug's equaliser, he then produced a clever pull-back for match-winner Mitchell Weiser.
That was already Grüll's second standout home display of the still young season. He had also starred in the 3-1 win against Champions League participants RB Leipzig at the start of September, with one goal and one assist. His soaring stock at Werder also brought another reward, as he earned a recall to the Austria national team for the first time in ten months after missing the World Cup.
For an international player, his route to the top was anything but typical. Grüll never came through the youth ranks at one of Austria's big clubs. He did have the chance, "at 13 or 14", "to go to an academy. But I preferred to stay at home because I simply felt more comfortable in the village with my friends and family," Grüll explained in an interview with Bild after his move to Werder in 2024. Instead of playing youth football at a high level, he stepped into senior football early, joining Austrian third-tier side TSV St. Johann at 17 and quickly becoming a regular.
Marco Grüll did not take the classic route to the top
Back then, he was not a professional. He still played football on the side while working a normal job, first as a salesman at a sporting goods retailer, although "at some point it became uncomfortable with my colleagues because I constantly couldn't work on Saturdays. So I switched to the post office." His daily routine at the time was clear: delivering letters from seven to 14:00, then training, and weekends off for matches. "You appreciate it very differently when suddenly there is only football left," he stressed, adding that given his background, life as a professional could never become something he took for granted.
Just after turning 20 and still playing in Austria's third division, Grüll gave himself one last chance before the 2018/19 season to make his dream of becoming a professional come true. "Now or never, otherwise I would have done something else and maybe still be with the post office," he said. It paid off. After an outstanding first half of the season with 19 goals in 17 third-division matches, then second-tier side SV Ried moved for him at the start of 2019. He made an instant impact there and won promotion to the top flight a year and a half later. A move to Austrian top club Rapid Vienna followed in 2021, and since 2024 Grüll has worn the Werder shirt.
Little in pre-season hinted at such a spectacular start to 2026/27 after a decent first season in Germany's top flight and a weak previous campaign. The competition in attack for the 28-year-old had also grown fierce with the high-profile arrivals of Eren Dinkci, Niclas Füllkrug and Cedric Itten. Over the previous two years, Werder had viewed him as a classic all-rounder and used him at centre-forward, on the right, on the left and as a second striker. He was also far from convincing in the weeks before the start of the season, though that did not unsettle Grüll.
What sets Marco Grüll apart at Werder Bremen?
Grüll said he has a "style of play where I already have to be fully sharp", explaining after the Augsburg match, in which he was named man of the match: "That's why I prefer it when I perform during the season." That is exactly what he has done of late, and in style, helping Werder enormously with his two biggest qualities, high speed and exquisite finishing with a good mix of power and technique.
"He is always perceived as a squad player," Thioune recently pointed out, suggesting Grüll is sometimes underestimated. "You're always pleased that he works hard, that he sticks to tactical instructions and that he is generally always reliable, but no footballer wants to hear that said about himself," Bremen's coach explained, revealing that he and his staff also nudged Grüll a little in the direction he has now taken: "We perhaps pointed out to him that now he can also show qualities that he does possess," Thioune said.
Meanwhile, nobody in Bremen is missing Samuel Mbangula right now. Signed last year from Juventus for a hefty €10 million fee and currently on loan at Bologna, Mbangula would have been one of Grüll's main competitors. Grüll is also benefiting from the fact that Thioune is now using him consistently in what is supposedly his best position on the left wing. "Cutting in from the left and finishing with his right, that is his weapon," Werder's head of licensed football, Peter Niemeyer, stressed back in the summer. That was before Grüll's flying start, which in the best-case scenario could become the platform for the best season of his career so far.
