Sasa Kalajdzic expresses enthusiasm for potential Bundesliga return
'I even considered flying to Berlin,' Kalajdzic enthusiastically remarked when commenting on Stuttgart's DFB-Pokal Final tie against Arminia Bielefeld. 'but that would have been too difficult. I watched on TV and was extremely happy. The club and the fans deserve it, and so does the team. They play great football and rewarded themselves for a season with more ups than downs.
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'I've said many times that VfB [Stuttgart] is the club closest to my heart,' Kalajdzic also said. 'I watch almost every game. I'm still in touch with some of the players I have a lot of friends there. My wife also felt very much at home in Stuttgart. VfB is my first big love in football, and it always will be. I'm happy that the clu.b is where it is now. I hope it can climb even higher, because I believe VfB belongs at the top.'
As to whether he could envision perhaps returning to Stuttgart to play someday, the 27-year-old obviously needed to note that his familiarity with the team precluded such a possibility. Kalajdzic can't hope to accuse playing time behind the likes of strikers Deniz Undav, Ermedin Demirovic, and current 'man-of-the-moment' Nick Woltemade. There's also the matter of the Austrian international's troubled injury history.
'VfB has three strikers, and all three did well last season,' Kalajdzic said. 'A loan always has to make sense. In football, it's rare or even unheard of to sign someone just because they had a great past or out of love. Everything has to fit. I'm not in a position [due to the injury history] where I can point to a club and say, 'That's where I want to play.','
Kalajdzic nevertheless did drop strong hints that he wised to play football in the country of his mother tongue and comfortable culture. His words on life in Wolverhampton surely solicited a chuckle out of most readers.
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'It's a smaller city,' Kalajdzic said of his West Midlands home, 'Life here is a bit different from what I was used to – the culture, the food, the lifestyle. In Germany, people go out to a café or eat out when the weather is nice. In England, they do that too, but there's also a big pub culture, which isn't really my thing. But that doesn't mean that life here is worse. The people are very nice and crazy about football.'
The most telling quote of the interview still revealed where the two-meter-tall forward wished to be.
'I know the Bundesliga, and the Bundesliga knows me,' Kalajdzic said. 'So it would be a good fit. And I would never close any doors – but that applies in general, not just to VfB. I just want to be back on the pitch and playing! Spain, Germany, or Italy would be options for me, but I'm not ruling out staying in Wolverhampton.'
GGFN | Peter Weis
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Chelsea, England, Premier League, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company
