“Gets his chance”
©IMAGO
Just a short time after taking office at Union Berlin, coach Steffen Baumgart intervened with his former club 1. FC Köln. For the Billy Goats, the hoped-for signing of Ivan Prtajin (28) has fallen through. Baumgart doesn’t want to let the striker, who has hardly been considered so far, go. “He gets his chance,” confirmed the 52-year-old to the “Cologne Rundschau“. The “PictureAccording to Baumgart, the Croatian was personally informed of the change veto in a phone call.
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There had previously been a handful of rumors about Prtajin, who, in addition to Cologne, had been linked to other second division teams such as Hertha and Kaiserslautern, but also to the Bundesliga clubs Holstein Kiel and St. Pauli. However, the Effzeh had the best chance, admitted Prtajin’s advisor Petar Duvnjak.
“A move to Cologne will be difficult under the new circumstances. “Baumgart has always taken great care of Ivan,” Duvnjak told “Bild”. He had already courted Prtajin as coach of Cologne and Hamburg SV. “We therefore assess the situation in such a way that Steffen Baumgart would like to work with Ivan at Union Berlin.”
The striker came to Köpenick from Wehen Wiesbaden last summer with lots of praise for 1 million euros. At SVWW he contributed 33 goals and twelve assists in 65 games in two years and previously gained experience in the European Cup at Olimpija Ljubljana. However, under Baumgart’s predecessor Bo Svensson, Prtajin hardly got a chance and was only used twice as a joker for a few minutes. As a result, his market value fell from 1.8 million to 1.5 million euros in the latest Bundesliga update.