“HALILOVIC WILL BRING A LOT OF JOY TO CROATIAN FOOTBALL.” -Rakitic

“ALEN HALILOVIC HAS A BIG FUTURE AHEAD OF HIM.” – Abelardo

Alen Halilovic is a 20 years old young Croatian football player. He was born on the 18th June 1996 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. His father, Sejad Halilovic, is an old international Croatian and Bosnian football player. Alen Halilovic was, as a lot of Croatian players, formed and developed at Dinamo Zagreb. He made his professional Croatian league and Champions League debuts at the age of 16. Having enormous technical qualities, and a good vision of the game, he joined FC Barcelona at 18, the club he has supported since he was a child.

Yet this young Croatian international, who was promised a brilliant career, finds himself at a dead end, blocked in a club trapped in the relegation zone of the Bundesliga. But how did it come to this?

An unstable situation in Barça

Transferred from Dinamo Zagreb to FC Barcelona for about 5 millions euros, the youngster arrived in Catalonia in June, welcomed as “the new Messi”.

He played the 2014-2015 season with Barça B (Barça’s reserves team) which was going through a complicated period. While the squad on the paper was young and full of qualities, the team only won very few games and did not progress much.

Barça B were in relegation zone almost all season, and Halilovic, who has enough talent to change things, was not always a starter and had some problems with the coaching at Barça B. Besides training with Barça B, he started training with a private coach with a totally different approach to football than the football taught at La Masia.

He was called up only rarely to take part in the training of the first team and his time on the bench in Barça B frustrated him. He did play a game with the first team: a Copa del Rey game against Elche. A change of Barça B coach was made in mid-season, which sees Eusebio Sacristán (current coach of the Real Sociedad), paved the way for Jordi Vinyals. Halilovic did not benefit from this change of coach, his situation only stagnated.

Despite the change of coach, Barça B are relegated to Segunda B (equivalent of the 3rd Spanish league). A huge loss for the club, but also for Alen Halilovic, for whom a difficult situation start at Barça.

A false rebound in Gijon

Still, Halilovic’s stands fine for a first season at Barça B, and as a midfielder, he got 4 goals and 1 assist.

Following this relegation of the B team, Halilovic is promoted to the first team due to an obligatory clause in his contract, and carries out the preseason with his idols.

But very soon the club wanted to loan him out, as the midfield of Barça was already very crowded. The young player and his agent, however, repeatedly said that the player felt ready to stay in Barça, even if he only was to play a very few games. FC Barcelona still preferred to loan him, evaluating that that was best for his development.

Quickly the name of then newly-promoted Sporting de Gijón is mentioned, the coach being a former FC Barcelona player, but particularly a friend of Luis Enrique (both born in Gijón and having played for both clubs), Abelardo Fernández. This new stage was very important for the staff of Barça who had big expectations of the young player. The player then arrives on the Asturian coast with the ambition to return stronger to the Catalan club.

The player rapidly becomes an indisputable starter for the Asturian club, even if his lack of defensive work is often criticized. He contributed with dribbles to provide the team with very interesting actions, but he was the origin of the few goals for Sporting. For most of the season, the team was virtually relegated and struggled to keep possession of the ball during the games. Halilovic tried to adapt a game that was not really his, and he maked some defensive efforts. But it wasn’t enough.

After a few months at the club, the Asturian press reveals that the coach of the Sporting, Abelardo, was not satisfied by the work provided by the youngster during the training sessions. Although he has progressed defensively, his efforts were not enough in a team that sits back and let their opponents control the game.

His situation improved at the end of the season, even when they were still virtually relegated. The coach needed his best talents and flashes of genius to save the club. And, miraculously, Sporting Gijón ends up saving themselves from relegation which had threatened them since the beginning of the season. Players are acclaimed as heroes. Individually, Halilovic had a great season, with 3 goals and 5 assists, which also allowed the club to escape from the threat.

A disappointing loan return for the player

The player comes back to Barcelona and hopes for positive judgement from the club, as he played 36 of 38 games for Sporting Gijón, assorted to good performances. The coaching staff is careful not to comment on the player’s loan. Only Luis Enrique mentioned him in a press conference during the prior season, saying that « Halilovic is doing good things with Gijón. »

The player went on vacation with very little information from FC Barcelona about his future. His agent evoked the desire of Halilovic to stay in Barcelona to the media. In Croatia, his loan to Gijon produces a lot of talk, since Croatian media like to put all the faith and in him. In the same Croatian media, the player talked about the Croatian national team but refused to speak about his future at Barcelona, even if he reaffirmed his attachment to the Catalan club. When the player returned from vacation, he found out about the decision of Barça. He will not make the pre-season with them and must find a solution in order to have playing time. The player was surprised because he thought he had a place in the first team. FC Barcelona again offers him a loan to continue his progression in La Liga to come back stronger to the club. Many clubs are interested in loaning the player in Liga: Bétis Sevilla, Sevilla FC, Valencia, and Villarreal. But Halilovic refuses. He didn’t want his future to be left suspended, without guarantees.

His agent then looked for a club ready to pay for the transfer of the player. The problem was that he and his father have salary requirements that are too high for La Liga clubs. He received very few concrete offers despite a real interest from several Spanish clubs. A transfer to Valencia was almost closed, but the financial demands were too high, so Valencia refused. His father wants the player to enjoy the « wonderkid » status and that his salary goes with this status. He also want to benefit from a 50% commission on the transfer of his son. The only club willing to pay the salary requested is a Bundesliga club, which had already presented itself a year before for the loan of the player, was Hamburg SV.

The player was transferred there for 5 million euros (the same price paid by FC Barcelona when he joined from Dinamo Zagreb). FC Barcelona keeps on the player with a buy-back clause of 10 million euros over the next 2 years.

An awful transfer to HSV

The Croatian player discovered the Bundesliga in a historic club, which welcomes him as a star. But the club is experiencing a phase of instability at management level, as well as on the bench with many changes of coaches. Since 2010, the club has been very close to relegation every season, with survival achieved at the very end. The club has lost great players in recent years, who have not been replaced.

Halilovic is « happy » as he repeated several times in a very rudimentary German, about joining the club. He gets the jersey number he likes so much: number 23. This number was also the number of a legend of the club: Rafael van der Vaart.

He said he spoke with the manager and the coach before coming and that he was happy to work with them. He also said that the Hamburg SV is one of the biggest German clubs, alongside Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

The young Croatian follows the footsteps of Croatian players Milan Badelj and Ivica Olic, who also represented the German club. He would also share locker rooms with Emir Spahic, a player born in Dubrovnik, like himself.

But this euphoria of arrival leaves very quickly in a club under pressure. The 20-year-old’s career in Germany begins timidly. First under the orders of Bruno Labbadia who gives very few chances to the youngsters. He played very few matches and only once in the Bundesliga. He played in the German cup against a team of the German third division, scoring a remarkable goal against opposing FSV Zwickau, the only one of his team, who won the game 0-1.

Labbadia got fired and the arrival of Markus Gisdol in September would further complicate things. By then the club is then last of the Bundesliga with only 1 point. The new German coach is known for the development of young players, gives good hope to Alen Halilovic and his entourage. But he adopts a more defensive strategy than his predecessor, which leaves no room for a player like Halilovic, rather creative than defensive.

At this point, Halilovic has only played one game as a starter since the start of the season. He had only played 164 minutes with Hamburg SV. He has only played 5 games, 4 out of 5 as a substitute, and most of the time he is not even on the game sheets.

A call for help to Barça

In a view of his situation, Alen Halilovic seeks for a way out and wants to leave Hamburg as soon as possible. He seems far from a return to Barça, who will probably not activate their buy-back clause. Fans of the Catalan club are worried about his situation and points the finger at the directive of Barça who would be responsible for the quagmire in which Halilovic is currently in.

FC Barcelona, who had advised a loan in a club of Liga to the Croatian player in June, is worried about the player’s entourage. It is quite clear that this same entourage is more or less responsible for the situation of Halilovic. This entourage is composed of two people who are very influential: his father and his agent. And it seems difficult for Alen Halilovic to avoid these influences.

On December 27, 2016, the Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo revealed that Halilovic called Robert Fernandez, Sports Director of Barça. The young player asked FC Barcelona if he could come back. He also admitted that he had made a mistake at the last transfer window and asked Robert Fernandez to help him changing his league to the La Liga.

He also told Barça that he did not feel well in Germany, that German life did not suit him. Zoran Stojadinovic, the agent of Alen Halilovic, has offered his player to several Spanish clubs. He has received several offers from Spanish clubs from the lower part of the table: Betis Seville, Las Palmas, Sporting Gijon, and Léganes. However, the player would prefer a permanent transfer, in order to leave Germany permanently.

FC Barcelona, who is ready to help him, prefer a loan, since a permanent transfer would mean that the Blaugrana club would lose buy-back option on the Croatian player, who would then become a totally free player. And Barça want to keep some control over Alen Halilovic’s progress. Even if the club will most certainly not use their buy-back option for this winter 2017 transfer window.

The latest and most reliable news send Alen Halilovic to the Betis Sevilla, although Las Palmas is still in the race.

Update of 4.01.2017: Alen Halilovic seems to be close to a loan of 6 months in Villarreal or Celta Vigo. His entourage tries to negotiate a loan with an option to buy at about 3M euros, even if Barça puts pressure in Hamburg SV for a loan. The German club has received offers for between 2 and 3 million euros but they want at least 5 million euros for Halilovic.

Update of 21.01.17 : Alen Halilovic signed a loan deal of 1 year and a half at Las Palmas, with a buy-option of 5 millions euros. If Las Palmas uses this option, FC Barcelona will no longer have power over his situation (they have a buy-back option with Hamburg and not with Las Palmas’ deal).

This young Croatian player, a diamond of Barça and long regarded as the Messi of the Balkans, failed on his way to Germany but seems to be on the right track if he returns to La Liga. We can nevertheless wonder about the influence that his entourage may have have had on his career.

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This article has been fully taken up and translated into Croatian by the site: http://www.net.hr You can look here: http://net.hr/sport/hrvat-koji-se-nasao-na-rubu-ponora-ima-problema-s-karakterom-i-bjezi-iz-hsv-a-halilovic-je-ponovno-tema-pisanja-medija/