Defender on trial

04 August 2001

Albion have taken defender Gilbert Prilasnig on trial. Prilasnig, known as "Gilli", plays on the left side of defence or left midfield and is an Austrian International. He played in all but one of Sturm Graz's Champions League games last season, but is now out of contract and has left Sturm. Sturm won their Phase 1 Group, knocking out Rangers and Monaco in the process (despite losing 5-0 away to both of them!). "Gilli" scored against Rangers in the 2-0 home victory. In Phase 2, they came rather unstuck against Man United and Valencia, but did beat Panathinaikos twice.

If anyone can speak German, the following passage from their web site might tell us more:

"Gestern flog Gilli zu einem Probetraining nach England. West Bromwich Albion ist an einer Verpflichtung interessiert. Davor schaute er noch einen Sprung bei mir vorbei um sich mit den Videos von "no.rapid" von den Spielen Sturm-Gala und Sturm-Rangers einzudecken. Auch andere Klubs aus Griechenland, Spanien und ?sterreich sind interessiert.
"

"Pass the phrase book", I asked - and Rene Guenther did just that:

Well, I can. What it says is:

"Yesterday, Gilli flew to England for a trial training. WBA have shown interest in signing him. Before he left, he came to see me to get videos of 'no.rapid' and the Sturm v Gala(tasaray) and Sturm v Rangers matches. Other clubs in Greece, Spain and Austria are also interested"

I am Austrian but I have been over here for four years now so I have no up-to-date knowledge of the player. I have contacted some people back home and I'll let you know as soon as I find out more about him.

Thanks again to Rene for the information - but unfortunately for Gilli it seems that we won't be pursuing the matter. I'm sure he'll end up doing a good job for somebody else, though...

Previous Stories:

  02 August 2001:  East Stand - 16 days and counting

  01 August 2001:  Hughes to Coventry?

  31 July 2001:  Hughes breaks silence

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