UDINE. Now it is on everyone’s lips. Those who bought it at fantasy football celebrate because that virtual “million” spent at auction could turn into resonant points throughout the season.
Those who support Udinese, on the other hand, already enjoy the points that Lazar Samardzic, a 19-year-old German of Serbian origin, brought to the Juventus cause by scoring an unexpected and beautiful goal as a gem in La Spezia just eight minutes after his debut in the series. TO.
Yet this guy until a month ago was known in Italy only among professionals, especially because he ended up, very young, on the shopping list of the biggest clubs in Europe, two Italians, Juventus and Milan.
It was spring 2020, a period of lockdown and a football blocked by the pandemic at all latitudes. Samardzic played in the under-19 formation – the correspondent of our Primavera – of Hertha Berlin, but he had the queue of admirers outside the door: Bayern Munich, as always happens when it comes to young talents in Germany, Barcelona and Chelsea, in addition to the two Italians.
In September, surprisingly, Leipzig comes out and, it is no mystery, can count on Red Bull’s (many) money, a detail that does not make it pass for the nicest team in the Bundesliga. Details. Also because for some years Leipzig, thanks to investments that “give you wings”, have been playing permanently in the Champions League.
He, Samardzic struggles to find space in such a competitive context: he starts with some presence (in the end there will be 7), then ends in the rear, he gets the coronavirus in December 2020 and the season finale, last May, is characterized by a injury: tear of the meniscus.
Just in time to get back on track and finish on the market. To find space. And here Udinese enters the scene with what could become a coup if Samardzic confirms the good he showed at his debut.
The boy, of course, is on the notebook of all clubs of a certain thickness, but Gino Pozzo, on the recommendation of the intermediary Claudio Vagheggi, former FIFA agent, realizes that Leipzig could sell the player outright.
Yes, that’s right: there is no right to “buy back” (at a fixed price, as is usually used, after one or two years) in the hands of the German club on Samardzic, paid last August 6 and a half million. euro to be a Udinese asset to all intents and purposes.
The second “bank” Gino Pozzo finds it in the Universal Sports Group, the agency that looks after the interests of the German and which is composed of a whole series of prosecutors, including Davor Curkovic, Croatian, a past as a medium-low level player , able to make ends meet in Iceland at the end of the 90s, but above all a consultant to Maurizio Zamparini at Palermo, where he placed a couple of his clients: Mato Jajalo and Ilija Nestorovski, now at Udinese.
In short, the right hook to close the circle and get Samardzic to sign a contract until 30 June 2026 after reaching an agreement with Leipzig.
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