Pascal Estrada has told LAOLA1 that his decision to leave Wolverhampton Wanderers for Olimpija Ljubljana last summer has paid off.
The centre-back joined the Premier League side from LASK Linz in 2018 and even though he trained with Wolves’ first team, he left them without having made a single appearance for the senior team.
Estrada has been a regular for the Slovenian side this season, making 34 appearances and was an integral part of their title winning squad. Speaking to LAOLA1, the 21-year-old has now backed his decision to leave the English club.
“It’s easy to argue why it was the right step. It’s time to get into senior football,” he said.
The Austria U21 international came close to representing Wolves’ first team. Despite this, he decided to leave them for Olimpija Ljubljana and explained the reason for the same.
“At Wolverhampton, I was close to first team football. I trained with the pros but it would have been very difficult to get match practice there,” Estrada explained.
“…whether it will be an issue that you really play games. That was too big a leap for me for the time being. Of course, it’s nice and good that I was there in training and it was fun too, but I didn’t see a realistic chance at Wolverhampton to play like 30, 35 games in a season, which is extremely important at my age.”
The former Wolves man has also revealed Albert Riera’s appointment as the club’s new manager last summer was another important factor that convinced him to join Olimpija Ljubljana. Riera had spells in England with Manchester City, Liverpool and Watford during his playing career.
“We didn’t know each other personally, but of course he knows the English game culture, so we had a good approach to each other. He came to Ljubljana a few days before me and made me feel that he really wanted me. That was just as important as his playing style,” Estrada stressed.
“You could see throughout the season that we have made an incredible development and dominate the opposition. Of course, it’s nice that we win a lot of games, but the way we do it speaks for itself. The dominance we exude and his plan from football were key.”
