The agent of new Bristol City keeper Stefan Bajic has revealed how a chance meeting with coach and scout Kalifa Cisse initiated the young goalkeeper's move to the Robins.
Bajic, 20, became the club's fourth signing of the summer after joining on a free contract following the expiration of his contract at Ligue 2 club Pau.
The youngster is highly-rated in France having featured in each of his country's youth sides while starting his career with Saint-Etienne where he became their youngest league full debutant during the 2019-20 season.
Agent Jimmy Laloum was at a football summit in Madrid when he and Cisse struck up a conversation that ultimately led to Bajic's arrival with City fending off competition for his signature. The club had to complete a 34-page dossier to the FA to secure his signature having to fulfil the criteria of the UK Government's point-based system (GBE).
The points calculator was revised in December 2020 to determine whether a player is eligible to play in the UK and is factored by which league the player plays in and how often they feature. Typically, a player needs at least 15 points to match the requirements although exemptions can be made, as was the case with Bajic.
Former midfielder Cisse was employed as a coach of City in 2019 but it appears his role has progressed over the years as he now focuses more on the recruitment side of the game. It is understood that, despite Laloum's comment, chief scout is not Cisse's official job title.
Laloum told transfer room: "Let's put it this way, we were really close to signing him for a club in France in Ligue 2 using our network but during a previous meeting at a summit in Madrid, I made a really good connection with the chief scout from Bristol City, who is also from France.
"I didn't want to put my goalkeeper in France because for me, it wasn't his level. Just by doing my networking with clubs, Kalifa Cisse called me up and said 'Jimmy I just finished a meeting with my CEO and we're looking for a top young goalkeeper in terms of potential.'
"I said: 'Listen, I think I may have the one' We went through the process which was difficult because of the GBE points.
"The platform said he had 12 points so I warned them that he was not going to get the auto-pass so he would need to go to the exemptions panel but he didn't want to hear about this.
"He said: 'Jimmy... we know,' I said: 'No, I know the transfer room GBE calculator is accurate' and they had to send a 34-page folder to the FA and it was validated. It's a pretty good deal for my player because the Championship is the sixth biggest league in the world."
Bajic has yet to make an appearance for City following wrist surgery at the end of last season but is thought to be closing in on a return to fitness having trained with the senior squad, although Nigel Pearson is in no rush to integrate him into the first-team setup.
He has been working with goalkeeping coach Pat Mountain who revealed how he stood out from 12 other potential goalkeeping targets.
"I get sent hundreds of messages from agents, from the recruitment department," Mountain said.
"If it's a goalkeeper, it normally gets chest deflected straight to me to check it. You're always looking at what's there and what's available.
"We were made aware he was available and over the summer holidays and he was probably one of 10-12 goalies that I looked at with a lot of detail and I thought if we can get him on a free transfer, he's only 20, he's already played in the top two levels in France then why not?"
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