"I'm looking forward to playing in the Premier League, but it wasn't my biggest dream. It's obviously the best league in the world, and I'm more than happy to be playing my first match very soon. I'm really happy and, let's say, in a way proud," Vuskovic told The Athletic, reflecting on his move to England after a stellar loan season in Germany.
The 19-year-old revealed that Spain, rather than England, had always represented his greater ambition.
"Maybe Spain," he said, was his biggest dream, "because life there is most similar to life in Croatia."
The World Cup-capped defender completed his switch to Brighton this summer for a fee reported at up to €58 million, following a hugely successful loan spell at Hamburg SV after his move from Tottenham.
That loan followed the Premier League club's initial agreement to sign him, struck two years earlier while he was still at Hajduk Split, and it transformed his stock: Vuskovic scored six Bundesliga goals from centre-back last season and was voted the division's player of the first half of the campaign by supporters.
Settling in at his new club has, by his own account, been straightforward so far.
"It was really easy, because my teammates, the coaching staff and the whole club have helped me a lot since I arrived here," Vuskovic said.
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler has spoken of the club's long-standing interest in the defender, saying the club followed his progress closely before finally completing the move after two rejected bids earlier in the window.
Vuskovic's rise from Hajduk Split's academy to a club-record fee at a Premier League side in the space of little more than two years marks him out as one of the most closely watched young centre-backs in Europe, even if his own ambitions may eventually point him toward Spain rather than a long-term future on the south coast of England.