Zenit continues a strong transfer campaign to protect the three trophies won with difficulty in the 2023/2024 season in the club’s centenary year. In the Russian market, it seems that the inhabitants of St. Petersburg have already taken everyone they wanted: Maxim Glushenkov from Lokomotiv, Yuri Gorshkov from Wings of the Soviets, Sergei Volkov from Krasnodar and Evgeniy Latyshonok from Baltika. Now they are waiting for at least two new foreign players: the midfielder and the striker (Alexander Sobolev is not the first number on the short list). As the championship learned, the blue and white team agreed to the transfer of Torino and Serbia national team midfielder Ivan Ilic, and the 23-year-old player will have to undergo a medical examination in the near future.
What is known about Sobolev’s possible transfer to Zenit
“Sobolev really wants to go to Zenit.” All about the probable transfer of the Spartak striker
The story of Ilic’s transfer to Zenit developed rapidly. At least on June 28, the Italian website Tuttosport wrote that the St. Petersburg club was ready to buy the Serbian from Torino for 25 million euros. According to the source, the Turin team is satisfied with this amount and hopes to obtain the player’s consent for the transfer. La Gazzetta Granata then revealed Ivan’s possible salary at Zenit – 3 million euros per year after taxes. According to information from Italy, the RPL champion promised the midfielder to provide him with a villa in St. Petersburg, a luxury car and an unlimited number of flights from Russia to Serbia.
At the same time, the Telegram channel “Mutko contra” reports that the transfer amount will be 27 million euros.
Ilic is taking part in Euro 2024. The Serbian national team was eliminated after the group stage, losing to England (0-1) and drawing with Slovenia (1-1) and Denmark (0-0). Ivan started the first match with the British on the bench, but came on as a substitute during the break and was on the field for half of the match. In the following two rounds, the Torino midfielder appeared in the starting eleven. Ilic teamed up with Milan striker Luka Jovic, who was also interested in Zenit this summer, and scored Serbia’s only goal at the Euro. Ilic took the corner well, sent the ball to the right place and Jovic headed it in.
In two and a half stints at Euro 2024, Ivic made 26 accurate passes in the opposing third of the pitch, including three passes under fire and seven accurate long passes, won 12 duels and made six tackles. According to all these statistical indicators, he entered the top 3 among Serbians.
Ivan Ilic at Euro 2024
Photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images
Overall, Ilic has been playing for the Serbian national team since June 2021; He debuted with the national team at the age of 20. Since then, he has played 19 games for her and has provided two assists. I still haven’t managed to score. Iván traveled with the Serbians to the 2022 World Cup, but in Qatar he only received half an hour from coach Dragan Stojkovic in the first round against Brazil. The Torino midfielder missed the March friendly match with the Russian team in Moscow due to injury.
Ilic is a product of Real Madrid (not Madrid, but the Serbian from Niš) and Red Star. On the day of his debut for the Belgrade team, Ivan set a record. In April 2017, he played professionally for the first time at the age of 16 and became the youngest debutant in Red Star history.
It seemed that Ilic had everything to become a star, and not only in Serbia. Good physical characteristics (the center’s height is 186 cm), creativity, excellent technique – Ivan can easily beat any opponent one-on-one and perform a subtle pass. He also has good athletic genes. Mother Daniela was a professional basketball player, and father Srdjan played as a forward for Radnički Niš. By the way, Ilic has a brother, Luka – a 24-year-old winger, owned by French club Troyes and loaned to Red Star.
Apparently, Manchester City’s scouts also assessed Ilic’s potential with the same assessment. Shortly after the youngster’s debut with Red Star, the English club bought him for 2.5 million euros. However, immediately after the transfer, Ivan stayed on loan at the Belgrade club, obviously hoping to progress faster at home. But Ilic never played for Manchester City. He was then loaned out two more times: to the Serbian Zemun and the Dutch NAC Breda.
In September 2020, Verona rented and a year later bought Ilic from Manchester City for 7.5 million euros. And in January 2023, Torino’s leaders listened to their Croatian coach Ivan Juric, who insisted on signing the Serbian. The Turin team paid a lot of money for the young midfielder – 16.5 million euros (not including the first season’s rent). This remains the second most expensive transfer in Torino’s history. Only Simone Verdi received more – 22 million euros.
But with such a set of qualities, the midfielder, who has a strong left foot and is capable of playing the role of a defensive midfielder or a “number eight”, did not become a star at Torino. At 23, he is still an unstable player, at least at Serie A level. Italian journalist Alberto Giulini, who works for the Corriere Torino and Toro News publications, spoke to La Campeonato about how Ilic spent these year and a half seasons at the Turin team:
“Ilic is a very talented player, but his results in the last 18 months have been weak. Torino paid more than 17 million euros to buy him from Verona because former coach Juric really wanted him. The club decided to buy the player and hoped that Ilic would help the team improve and reach European competition, but that did not happen. He has an excellent left foot, but Ilic is sometimes accused of lacking dedication. In several games the midfielder worked with Samuele Ricci, two players who always want to have the ball.
Ivan Ilic in Turin
Photo: Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images
Now Torino must decide what to do with Ilic: his performance has been weak, but he is still a talented young player. “25 million euros is a very good offer and Torino can decide to sell the player, because Gvydas Gineitis, who has enormous talent, is in the same position.”
Last season in Serie A, Ilic played 31 matches, 25 of them as a starter. At Torino he was tenth in terms of time on the field: 2001 minutes. At the same time, he missed 52 days due to ankle and collateral ligament injuries. According to the “goal plus pass” system, the Serbian center shared the third place in the team with former CSKA midfielder Nikola Vlasic and forward Antonio Sanabria: he scored five points. Ilic scored three goals against Monza, Udinese and Milan, and assisted in the matches against Genoa and Roma. In addition, Ivan has one goal in two matches in the Coppa Italia.
Ilic, although he did not play much, became the best for Torino in the Italian championship in terms of the number of precise passes in the opponent’s half (605), second in terms of passes under attack (47) and “great opportunities” created ( 8). He was among the top three in accurate passes to the opposing third (266) and shots on goal (11). But Serbs’ expectations were apparently even higher.
How the Serbs were eliminated from Euro 2024
Serbia is a pain. It’s a disgrace to play a decisive match in the Euros like this.
In the event of Ilic’s transfer, Zenit will most likely have a Barrios-Wendel-Ilic triangle in midfield. In this case, Claudinho will return to the left wing. Or they will sell him to another club, because there is interest in him in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
