Photo: FourFourTwo Hrvatska
Croatian midfielder, Danijel Pranjić, announced today that he will be joining Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon on a free transfer from Bayern Munich. After much speculation that the 30 year-old Pranjić would join Nikica Jelavić at Everton or even chase the money in China, it was a bit of a surprise that he left for Portugal, albeit a good decision.
Pranjić should now receive plenty of playing time in a very competitive Primeira Liga where he will also participate in the Europa League this campaign. The deal is for three years and Goal.com has also reported that there is a €15 million buy-out clause written into the contract, which should keep Pranjić at Estadio de Alvalade until 2015. Pranjić was capped only 55 times in three seasons at Bayern Munich, never receiving a solid spot in the starting XI.
“I am happy that I came to Sporting, a big club with a beautiful stadium. This season the goal is to battle with Benfica and Porto for the title. I have always imagined that I would play in Portugal. I think that this style of football suits me perfectly.”
~Danijel Pranjić for Portugese madia on Friday
Sporting CP finished fourth last year in the Primeira Liga, just missing out on the final Champions League spot. The Portugese giants knocked off Manchester City last year in the Europa League round of 16, but fell to Athletic Bilbao in the semifinals. Sporting CP will be looking to build on last year’s success in the Europa League and will be looking to qualify for the Champions League this year. The Leões (Lions) will play friendlies this month against Charlton Athletic, Sheffield United, and Saint-Étienne before opening up the Primeira League season against Vitória Guimarães on August 18th.
Hopefully with some regular time, he goes back to the form he had at Heereveen.
Would have preferred an EPL move, but overall it’s a good move for him i think, he should fit in well their, Lisbons squad aint to bad,
The Kinez Super League would have been a terrible move for him with his NT ambitions, but a very good move for him in regards to filling up his wallet with paper..
Grb alert:
During a game of Slap,Lick, Fondle on Tosh.0
This is agreat move! Pranjic was misused at Byaern playing as a back. He was a goal machine playing midfield in Holland. I hope this restarts his career and I hope Stimac takes notice for the NT as Perisic has not quite clicked with the NT. Good luck Pranjic.
Kranjcar and Vuko starting in Kievs first game today. Will be interesting to see where they play Niko. The formation chart thingy shows him at right wing
Good move. underrated player
Mario Jelavic gets tryout with Manchester City…
http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Sport/Hajduk/tabid/83/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/180992/Default.aspx
better than another player moving to Russia/Ukraine!
very underrated versatile player. I hope this rejuvenates his career. in my opinion this was a steal.
Bravo Pranjic!
Show Portugal what you can do!