Sheffield United will not be signing free-agent Kyriakos Papadopoulos after the Greek international sealed a shock move to Lokomotiva Zagreb.
With all due respect to a team to a side who finished second in the Croatian league last season, behind only city rivals Dinamo, this feels like a dramatic fall from grace for a defender who, not to long ago, was a target for Europe’s biggest and best.
Even this year, a man who’s rapid rise was halted by a series of never-ending injuries was linking with a move to the Premier League.
Sport24 reported in July that Papadopoulos was a target for Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United with his contract at Hamburg expiring at the end of the 2.Bundesliga season.
But, after three months out of the game, the former Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen starlet has finally found a new club.
Then again, when Schalke were rejecting a £16 million bid from Zenit St Petersburg for a man who was also on AC Milan’s hitlist, few would have expected that he’d be heading to Croatia just a few years later.
“He has not played an official match for a long time and he certainly believes that Lokomotiva is one step for him to return to his highest level,” Lokomotiva coach Goran Tomic tells Gol.
“We are here to help him and he will help us and I am convinced that we got the right reinforcement.”
Why Sheffield United did not press ahead with their initial interest remains a mystery.
Perhaps, after losing Jack O’Connell to a potentially season-ending injury, Wilder wasn’t keen on signing a centre-half who has spent more time on the treatment table than the football pitch in recent years.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
