Those who regularly watch Serie A had noticed his talent much sooner, but to the wider footballing world, the 2017-18 campaign was a breakout season for Sergej Milinković-Savić. Week after week, the Lazio midfielder turned in match-winning displays, his contribution vital to the success enjoyed by the Rome-based club and each outing raised his stock higher and higher.
Narrowly missing out on a Champions League berth, Lazio eventually finished in fifth place, with the Serbia international weighing in with 14 goals and seven assists in all competitions. That return made him one of the hottest names on the transfer market and, as he headed off to the World Cup, a €100 million move to Real Madrid, Manchester United, or Juventus seemed a mere formality.
Yet he remained firmly ensconced in the Italian capital, much to the delight of the Lazio president, and he is helping Lazio fight in the Europa League — as pictured above in the scuffle between Marseilles and Lazio supporters.
“We received a very big offer for him a day before the transfer window closed and we had a plan to replace him, but there wasn’t enough time,” Claudio Lotito claimed in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Tempo. “I won’t mention figures, but certainly it was an obscene offer that I think no one else in Italy could’ve refused.
“We’ll see if I was right or wrong to do what I did,” he added. “I could’ve sold him for a lot of money but didn’t.”
Just a few months later, Milinković-Savić signed a new five-year contract with Lazio, a decision which earned him a substantial increase in salary while ensuring that Lotito has an even stronger position in any future transfer negotiations.
As the new deal was concluded on October 1, there was talk of a buyout fee being set in the agreement, but his agent denied those rumors and spoke of the player’s delight in putting pen to paper in order to extend his stay with the Biancocelesti.
“Sergej, Lazio and we in his entourage are all very happy with his new contract,” Mateja Kezman told the LaLazioSiamoNoi website. “No-one talked about a release clause, Sergej is very happy in Rome. He’s been here for three years and he loves the club and the city.”
Struggling at the World Cup after a bright start, the 23-year-old has continued to look off the pace as the current season began, with many wondering if the transfer chatter had distracted him. It mirrors the path the last 12 months have followed for Andrea Belotti, the summer of 2017 seeing the Torino striker engulfed in similar rumors only to remain with the Granata rather than move on. In the previous campaign the Italy international had plundered 26 league goals, but he followed that up with a subpar return of just 10 last term.
If Belotti – who has endured a number of niggling injuries, too – offers a cautionary tale of what can happen when a major opportunity is allowed to pass, the presence of Kerman as his lead representative should offer Milinković-Savić an even deeper understanding of how important it is to secure the right move at the right time.
Named Dutch Footballer of the Year in 2003, Kezman – who now serves as the Lazio man’s agent – moved to Chelsea a year later, arriving with huge expectations after scoring a staggering 105 goals in 122 appearances for PSV Eindhoven. He never recaptured such form at Stamford Bridge, instantly ending a run of five consecutive 20-plus goal seasons and never once surpassing that mark again before his retirement in 2012.
“Maybe I do and maybe I don't regret it, but I always believe in my decisions,” Kezman told Sky Sports back in 2011. “But the transfer to Chelsea made my dreams come true, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Maybe I could achieve more and I could have been more successful at Stamford Bridge, but I don't regret anything.”
However true that may be, he has certainly not allowed his most high profile client to rush into a similar move at the first opportunity, and over the next calendar year we should learn if Milinković-Savić was right to show such caution.
He is still young and clearly has many years in which to realize his full potential, but will be hard not to look back at the summer of 2018 and wonder what if Sergej Milinković-Savić had left Lazio?
Adam Digby is an Italian football writer for FourFourTwo, The Independent, and elsewhere. Author of "Juventus: A History In Black & White." Follow Adam on Twitter.