Red Bull Salzburg has signed Liverpool midfielder Stefan Bajcetic to a season-long loan after a potential deal with Barcelona fell through.
Bajcetic, 19, will reunite with two familiar faces in Austria after former Liverpool assistant head coach Pep Lijnders was hired as Salzburg's new head coach in May. Lijnders, who was Jurgen Klopp 's assistant and in the running to become Liverpool's head coach, has also signed Bobby Clark from the Reds.
While the Salzburg move is a huge chance for Bajcetic to enjoy a full season at senior level, his father was happier when news filtered through that Barcelona was looking to acquire his son's services. The Spanish club offered $4.4 million to sign him on loan, but due to financial restrictions, they withdrew the bid as registering the player became impossible.
Barcelona's offer came late, and Liverpool received it once negotiations with Salzburg were underway. Although Bajcetic's father is supportive of his loan move away, he wants the defensive midfielder to end up at the best club possible.
"The news about Barca’s interest surprised us all. We weren’t expecting this news," Srdjan Bajcetic told RAC1 when discussing Stefan's future. "We had everything ready to go to Salzburg."
While any move for Bajcetic this summer would have only been temporary, if his future isn't at Liverpool his father hopes his standards are higher than Salzburg. "Every parent wants the best for their child and obviously I would like to one day be able to play for a team as big as Barcelona or Liverpool," he added.
"Two years ago he started a lot of games with Klopp at Liverpool, and he showed that at 17 he could even play in the Champions League . I know that Barca is different and it is a more complicated club, but I think he does have the mentality to play in a big team."
Bajcetic impressed former head coach Klopp and made 11 Premier League appearances during the 2022-23 season. Unfortunately for the midfielder, his progress was halted due to an injury sustained in March 2023 and has barely played soccer since then.
This summer Bajcetic has been looking to impress new head coach Arne Slot, who has already sanctioned a number of permanent exits as he begins to trim the squad handed over to him by Klopp. Clark, Fabio Carvalho, and Sepp van den Berg are just some of the players rated highly by Klopp who haven't impressed Slot enough to remain involved.
Bajcetic will still be given time by Slot due to his age, and he did enough under Klopp's tenure to attract interest from Barcelona. The midfielder was given crucial minutes in preseason by Slot, but when reflecting on his performances he decided that a year on loan was the best option for all parties.
"I think you have to take into account with Stefan that he was out for a year, one-and-a-half years almost," Slot told LFC TV. "So if a young player is out for that long, you have to give him some time.
"But I saw already a few good moments from him and also a few moments where he got caught because he reacted a bit too slow. But I think that’s normal if you’ve been out for such a long time, then you need rhythm, you need game time to grow even further."
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