Manchester United could sign Serbian prospect over Perisic
By Cay North
Manchester United could add midfield depth by bringing in 22-year-old Eintracht Frankfurt attacking midfielder Mijat Gacinovic.
The Serbian national team has some of the brightest prospects in Europe, as the winners of the 2015 Under-20 World Cup, and one of those prospects may be on his way to Manchester United. Mijat Gacinovic currently plays in Germany for Eintracht Frankfurt, but has drawn interest from multiple clubs in the Premier League and beyond.
Reportedly, those clubs include Arsenal, Manchester United, and Bayern Munich. The team with the most interest, however, is United. The midfield is usually considered one of the needs for their team, with a few big name players and not a lot of depth behind them, and Gacinovic fills that role for his club and, more recently, his country.
More from Playing for 90
- Alexia Putellas reaches 400 games with Barcelona
- Everything you need to know ahead of the 250th ‘Super Clásico’
- Barcelona put five past Real Betis
- Manchester City suffer but come away with win over West Ham
- Baffling Liga MX ruling strips Puebla of a hard-earned victory
At 22 years old, he already has more appearances at a top flight club than most players at his age. He’s appeared 50 times for Frankfurt, and before that, he made 60 appearances for Vojvodina Novi Sad, which is one of the top clubs in Serbia. He played 25 matches for Vojvodina during the 2015 season, which was when they captured the Serbian Cup for the second time in their history.
He hasn’t been a scorer for Frankfurt, but in three national team appearances since his debut in March, he already has a pair of goals. When Serbia lost 3-2 to Austria, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was in the stands, reportedly to scout him.
As Gacinovic plays as an attacking midfielder and a winger, the interest from United makes sense. Not only do they need midfield depth, but they also had interest this summer in Ivan Perisic, who ended up staying at Inter. Both players split their time between midfielder and forward roles, but Perisic is already 28. Not only that, but many of United’s fans doubt whether he’s even worth the money.
Gacinovic, on the other hand, can already manage himself in the Bundesliga and hasn’t hit his peak yet. He can spend some time learning from older players on the squad, such as Michael Carrick, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and international teammate Nemanja Matic, before breaking into the first team in the future.
He also isn’t widely famous yet, only gaining interest after debuting for the national team and starting to score. His transfer fee isn’t going to be overly expensive, while a move for a more experienced player like Perisic is going to come at a high price.
Next: Chinese Superleague players Chelsea could sign
In fact, Transfermarkt only lists Gacinovic’s value at 3,500,000, and while an actual transfer would certainly come at a higher price, it’s a far cry from what Inter wants for Ivan Perisic. Anything under 10,000,000 for a good prospect is a steal if a player ends up panning out, and while Gacinovic doesn’t have the track record that other transfer targets do, Manchester United would be smart to make a deal with Eintract as soon as the next window opens.