Sasa Kalajdzic is returning to the Bundesliga and is now storming for Eintracht Frankfurt. The Austrian is moving to Hesse on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers and could be in the starting line-up against Leipzig.
The change is perfect: Sasa Kalajdzic is coming back to the Bundesliga after an unsuccessful year and a half in the Premier League with Wolverhampton Wanderers and is now expected to score goals for Eintracht Frankfurt. After the transfer had already been hinted at in the past few days, the Hessians officially announced the deal on Sunday morning. Kalajdzic will therefore receive a loan contract until the end of the season; there is probably no purchase option.
In a video message to the fans, the attacker said: “It took a while, but now it finally worked. I’m looking forward to wearing the eagle on my chest and playing a great second half of the season with you. Forza SGE! “
Krösche is looking forward to Kalajdzic
“Sasa has already proven that he can play a very good role in the Bundesliga. His style of play will bring a new component to our game,” said sports director Markus Krösche. “He is a strong player with good positional and heading skills. We are firmly convinced that he can help us immediately due to his experience.”
Kalajdzic, who never got going at Wolves after tearing his cruciate ligament in the summer of 2022 and was only in the starting line-up once this season, is expected to close the gap in the center of attack at Eintracht and directly replace Omar Marmoush, who is away at the Africa Cup of Nations. The Austrian could celebrate his debut in the Frankfurt jersey next Saturday (3:30 p.m.) against RB Leipzig.
Demands for purchase option too high
At Darmstadt 98’s training camp, coach Torsten Lieberknecht also reported a request from Kalajdzic: “You’re smiling, but it was actually like that. I was in contact with him, but I realized relatively quickly that we didn’t have the best chances. But he did thanked you for your interest,” said Lieberknecht in a media roundtable on Saturday. In addition to Eintracht, according to media reports, VfL Wolfsburg and Kalajdzic’s former club VfB Stuttgart were also interested in signing him. The attacker is said to have committed to Eintracht quite early on.
However, the negotiations with Wolverhampton had stalled because the English and Hessians apparently could not agree on a purchase option after the loan. The “Wolves” demands of 25 million euros were said to have been too high for the Frankfurt-based company, writes the Bild newspaper. Kalajdzic scored 24 goals in 60 competitive games for VfB between 2019 and 2022. He also storms for the Austrian national team and drew attention to himself in the game against Germany (2-0) in November.
Another striker should come
After the deal with Kalajdzic, Eintracht probably wants to sign another striker, but on a longer-term basis: The portal “fussball.news” reports that the general conditions for a transfer of Hugo Ekitiké from Paris have been clarified: “A loan until the summer is guaranteed with a purchase obligation and easily attainable bonuses. The overall package would probably cost the player a little more than 15 million euros,” it says.
