The Lazio president spoke to Tag 24: “This offer is worth much more for the player than for the club. He wanted a change of scene. A question of stimuli? In Arabia, the stimuli are… money. Until that’s all signed and fine, he will retire with the team”
Claudio Lotito is ready to greet Milinkovic Savic. The Lazio president spoke exclusively to Tag24 and, after locking down Al Hilal’s offer (“I don’t know anything about Milinkovic in Arabia and I don’t think anything has been done. Someone tells you things, but I don’t know if it’s lies or truth. At the moment I haven’t signed anything”), he hinted that it was the player who wanted to say goodbye to Lazio, ready to renew his contract: “They told me that there is this offer – continued Lotito – who is worth a lot for the player and less for the club. Milinkovic asked to leave since he’s been with Lazio for 8 years. It’s not a problem of relations with the club, but of his mind. And it wasn’t even a money problem with us: he wanted a change of scenery. I don’t want to give him up, but if he wants to go, I won’t keep him. We will strengthen ourselves. Why is he leaving? I don’t know if it’s a problem of stimuli: if one wants to go to Arabia, he only stimulus is money. But you have to ask him.” Final on the renewal: “I tried to keep him until the last minute, but when someone asks me to leave for his own personal matter, what can I do? We were willing to renew the contract and increase it. I have a good relationship with him, but in the end the player decides what he wants to do in life. He phoned me begging me to let him go. For now Sergej will retire, that’s the way it is for now… This offer hasn’t actually arrived: when the contract will be signed and the payment, it will be made. I made a commitment with the boy: if a normal offer for Lazio had arrived, he could go. The offer is 50 million lower, a little less. This is an act of faith that I’m doing to the player for a commitment I’ve made.”