Three goals for Sasa Kalajdzic (pronounced Sascha Kal-ai-chitch) over the last week for Austria has thrusted the VfB Stuttgart striker into the international spotlight. With it, and in his preceding month of more-than-good form for his club, rumours of a move to the Premier League have gained traction. So, who is this Kalajdzic?
Well, as you can tell by his briefly mentioned goal-scoring record, he is a striker. Although, at 200cm he is no normal number nine. Comparisons have already been made to Peter Crouch, referencing his similarly lanky nature, while his Zlatan Ibrahimovic-type agility has also been praised. However, his response was simply humbling and told the story of a player who has had to graft for his success but still has his wits about him.
“I don’t really want to get involved, though, because I can’t compare myself to these players. What have I achieved so far for you to be able to make these comparisons? On the other hand, it’s nice to be mentioned in the same breath as these names.”
In fact, he is more of a mild combination of those two behemoth strikers where a compromise of a peak Andy Carrol can be reached. His goals are mostly headed – as evidenced by his seven this season in the Bundesliga – but he has partnered his immense height with a clean touch as well, chipping a couple of embarrassed keepers this season.
He is comfortable with his back to goal, can break the lines with his pace and has no trouble holding off a defender. He has registered just three assists this season. Though, for reference, only nine of the top 19 goalscorers have more assists than him and only two have more than five – future Bayern Munich hall of fame members Robert Lewandoski and Thomas Müller.
The striker even attested to his creative ability, saying: “I’m not a classic number nine, maybe something between a nine and a 10, something like that maybe. A nine and a half!” Which should definitely excite fans. Kalajdzic used to play as a midfielder in his youth years, before being converted to a number nine. So his ability to create is not mere spontaneity but an established trait.
This is an impressive return for someone who is virtually playing their first season in the Bundesliga. This came after clear dominance, both on the stats sheet and via the ‘eye test’ in his native Austrian Bundesliga for Admira Wacker.
This was despite an apparent injury history. Long lay-offs due to various, unrelated injuries did not put off Stuttgart from investing in the 200cm Austrian in July 2019. However, injury struck once more as Kalajdzic tore his anterior cruciate ligament just 20 minutes into a pre-season fixture in his first year with Stuttgart.
He recovered fully and played out the final few games of the 2019/20 season. He is now dominating the same league just a year later, which is a testament to his perseverance and resilience to setbacks.
This season he has scored in seven consecutive games just before a 4-0 loss to Bayern Munich preceded the international break. It is this clinical form that has Premier League sides interested. Only the top three Bundesliga goal scorers have a higher goal-per-minute ratio than Kalajdzic of all players with 15, or more, appearances. Two of the three are unattainable glories for the majority of world football – Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski. And at 23-years-old he is two years younger than Andre Silva – the third of the trio above him – and a completely different striker.
A non-penalty expected goal plus assist total 10.0 does hint to a slightly significant overperformance – compared to his 16 actual combined goals and assists. But, at his height, there’s not many defenders that can deny him a headed goal, late on in a match, so he is always a chance.
So far it has been West Ham who have been the most strongly linked, maybe as competition for the often-injured Michail Antonio. Newcastle – another side with a poor striker-buying history, along with West Ham – have also shown rumoured interest, along with Everton.
While a dream to one day play for Liverpool could tempt Jurgen Klopp into signing the midfielder-turned-striker as a last-gasp, super-substitute. However, any Premier League club will have strong competition with AS Roma and RB Leipzig also said to be vying for the striker’s signature.
Whatever happens this off-season, Kalajdzic most likely won’t feature for Stuttgart beyond this May.
