Kristijan Jakic will leave FC Augsburg after all and move to Greece. This move had been in the works for some time.
Not every seasoned Bundesliga player can find a spot on the newly formed FC Augsburg roster. Kristijan Jakic was a key player for the Bundesliga veteran club for years, but the Croatian World Cup veteran has not been in demand in this role for some time—and most recently wasn’t even part of the matchday roster.
However, this was only partly due to on-field reasons: Jakic had been in talks with potential new employers for quite some time, and Union Berlin is also said to have made inquiries. Now, the former Europa League champion with Eintracht Frankfurt is heading to Greece to join PAOK, where his former FCA teammate Dimitrios Giannoulis is already waiting.
Augsburg, led by Managing Director Michael Ströll and Sporting Director Benni Weber, has been in negotiations with the team currently ranked seventh in the Greek Super League for several days, and a solution has now been reached. PAOK is initially loaning Jakic for a fee of 500,000 euros and holds an option to buy him next summer.
In Greece, the transfer window remains open until September 15, so the deal must be finalized by next Tuesday at the latest.
Rieder and Massengo are the driving forces in Augsburg’s midfield
Jakic is leaving FC Augsburg after a total of 78 competitive matches, during which he recorded three assists and five goals. He scored the last of those goals, of all things, in what was—for the time being—his final appearance in an FCA jersey: In the cup match in Cottbus, Jakic scored the goal that sealed the 2–0 victory shortly before the final whistle and then ran jubilantly toward the visitors’ section.
One thing is clear, however: The departure of the 17-time national team player is no longer considered a particularly bitter loss. Jakic earned his stripes in Augsburg as a tenacious tackler, even wearing the captain’s armband at times (and getting into it with his own fans), but in terms of play, Fabian Rieder and Han-Noah Massengo have long since surpassed him in defensive midfield. At FCA, there’s now more focus on playing soccer than on hard work, and Jakic didn’t really fit in there anymore.