He was marginalized. Now he is essential in the midfield – decimated by injuries – of Sarri’s Lazio. So much so that it has become a contract to be renewed. Similar cases are those of Rugani and Kostic, Dimarco and Gabbia. That’s why, before going on the market, every team should look among the “redundants”. It’s Basic
Ultimately it was enough to be inspired by his surname, trying to translate it: Basic, that is, basic. And that’s what Toma Basic is proving to be, with a story that should make you think. Yes, because after having sold him to Salernitana, after returning home due to a lack of convincing offers, after being excluded from the UEFA list and in Italy for an entire year – the past one – Basic has now earned himself a starting place and Sarri’s public praise. In truth, history repeated itself this season too: he was on the fringes of the first team, still out of the list, when the series of injuries that hit the Biancocelesti midfielders reopened the door to the first team. The technical staff and managers have been wondering for days: what do we do? Shall we try putting Basic back in? The response was conditioned by necessity, but no one – and if anyone says otherwise, raise your hand – would have ever thought that history would turn out differently. Because Basic has become not only a fixed point, but even a contract to be renewed as soon as possible, because the expiry in six months could make someone entice, considering that we are talking about a boy who has just turned 29. And it is paradoxical that after paying him all this time to keep him still – one million four hundred thousand euros per season – Lazio is now ready to invite him to a negotiating table, perhaps with the awareness of having to even raise the stakes.