Why Arsenal and Man Utd must snap up €20m Bundesliga striker before Bayern or Dortmund
FT Desk
- Updated: 8 Mar 2022 18:30 GMT
- 8 min read
With the summer transfer window on the horizon, there’s little doubt that two of English football’s biggest clubs will both be looking for a new striker before the start of next season.
Manchester United are likely to lose at least two forwards in the form of Edinson Cavani and Jesse Lingard, with Cristiano Ronaldo possibly departing the club too.
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Similarly, Arsenal are likely to follow up the departure of Piere-Emerick Aubameyang to Barcelona in January by bidding farewell to Alexandre Lacazette when his contract expires in June.
As such, both clubs will be putting together shortlists for new No.9s in the summer and they could do a lot worse than one young forward in the Bundesliga that will likely be leaving his club for a relative bargain.
How good is Sasa Kalajdzic?
Despite being a relatively late bloomer in European football, Kalajdzic has made up for lost time by putting up some very impressive numbers for a striker in Austrian and then German football.
At Austrian side Admira Wacker the towering striker bagged a notable 12 goals and 12 assists in just 35 games, before making the move to Stuttgart in 2019 for around €2m.
Since then, Kalajdzic has bagged no less than 19 goals and eight assists in 48 goals, with most of those coming last season when he picked up 16 goals and six assists in 33 Bundesliga games.
At just 24 years of age, the Austria international has already proved himself to be a perfectly adept Bundesliga talisman and could be ready to make the next step in England.
Why would he be so cheap?
Due to his performances in the Bundesliga last season, both Man Utd and Arsenal would face reported interest from Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich.
As such, Kicker are reporting that the player will push for a move away from his relegation-threatened side in the summer. However, despite such interest, the Stuttgart striker is still set to cost very little indeed this summer and there are a number of reasons why.
For example, the most important one is that Kalajdzic’s contract at Stuttgart is set to expire in 2023, which means this summer’s window will be the last opportunity for the club to cash in on him.
When asked about the possibility of the striker moving on this summer, Stuttgart club director Sven Mislintat said: "Basically, he still has a contract. That means we're a lot more relaxed.
"Sasa said very clearly that he first wanted to get healthy and come onto the pitch before we made that concrete."
Secondly, the player was also dealt a horrendous shoulder injury last summer which ruled him out of action until January of this year. As such, the Austrian striker has only managed six games this season, with just one goal and one assist to his name.
As such, despite his promise and previous record in the German top flight, Kalajdzic is currently valued at just €6 million and would likely go for far less than €20m in the summer.
