It’s odd that Vedat Muriqi is still on the pitch for RCD Mallorca. The center forward was actually supposed to land in Bruges.
The fact that transfers can fail at the last second is evident in every change window – Union fans will still remember the Isco drama well. That a player is already there, but in the end nobody wants to know anything about the change, is an absolute rarity.
Vedat Muriqi had to experience exactly that when he wanted to join Club Brugge. Everything was clear for the centre-forward, but apparently a strange plan was hatched in Brugge to scuttle the deal at the last second.
July 2022: RCD Mallorca cannot exercise Muriqi’s option to buy due to financial reasons and the 28-year-old has to return to Lazio.
Club Brugge should have tried to get the attacker’s services pretty quickly, at least that’s what the player thinks. “We were very surprised that everything happened so quickly and that Lazio and Brugge already had a contract for Vedat. It was as if the transfer had been made in a hurry,” recalled a person close to the player in an interview Relief.
So Muriqi and his advisor quickly made their way to Bruges. When you get there, crazy things happen: no president, no sports director, no one from the club is waiting for the player at the airport. “They put us in an Airbnb because all the hotel rooms were occupied. I didn’t like that and it made me angry,” Muriqi said in an interview Relay.
The first night in Belgium is finally behind him – the medical check is on the agenda. Until then, the transfer seems to be going smoothly. “Vedat told them he can’t do his best in the race where you run with a mask. He hadn’t trained and didn’t want to take the risk of hurting himself. ‘Do what you can,’ they did said to him in Bruges,” says the Kosovar’s entourage.
Muriqi to Bruges? Find out about the transfer fail via social media
The medical check is completed, it’s still a strange feeling due to the strange circumstances, but for Muriqi it’s clear that he will soon be chasing goals in the Champions League.
The next step is to sign the contract. But then came the big bang: The Muriqi camp found out via social media that he had failed the medical check.
“Imagine the situation. He found out via Twitter that he failed the medical tests. On the treadmill he had to get a percentage greater than 50 and he managed 48. But he had already told them that “He came without training and that with two training sessions he can easily reach that mark. I’m sure it was all a strategy from Brugge to lower the transfer price. Two days later, Vedat did the same test Lazio and reached 52 percent,” said the person close to Muriqi.
Muriqi thus returned to Rome. His future didn’t seem to lie in Bruges after all, the Champions League was a long way off. A little later, however, the phone rang again in the Italian capital. “They called again and wanted to loan Muriqi out until the end of the season with an option to buy. But didn’t they turn him down because he didn’t pass the test? Vedat wasn’t willing to go back there,” quoted Relief die Person.
RCD Mallorca: 30 million release clause bypassed
The winner of this curious exchange fail? RCD Majorca. The Spaniards wanted to keep Muriqi after the loan, but had to let him go. Lazio, on the other hand, were not very interested in keeping the 1.94 meter tall centre-forward.
Therefore, the LaLiga club contacted the Italians to force a transfer again. So after three weeks, Muriqi returned to Mallorca – the Spaniards paid just €7.7m for the ex-Fenerbahce striker.
Not only for Mallorca and Muriqi was the deal a roller coaster ride of emotions, Lazio should ultimately look at the transfer with mixed feelings. The capitals transferred €20m to Fenerbahce in the summer of 2020 to secure Muriqi’s services. When he was loaned out to Mallorca, a €30m release clause was built into the contract, so Lazio ended up losing almost €13m with the goalscorer.
Is Muriqi now dissatisfied on the Spanish island? If you look at his achievements, you can say: it was a win-win situation for both sides. Ten goals and three assists underline his strong form – things could hardly have gone better for Mallorca. And maybe Club Brugge looks back a little wistfully on the Twitter cancellation.
