Liverpool’s season hasn’t been full of highlights, but the emergence of Stefan Bajcetic is right at the top of the list.
Last summer, if fans were asked to name their most important players for the upcoming campaign, votes for the diminutive teenager would likely have been between zero and none. But after impressing on the training pitches Jurgen Klopp promoted him into the first team and he has never looked back.
And after making just 14 appearances for the senior team, there is a case to be made that he has been the club’s standout midfield player. Mohamed Salah alluded to as much when he branded Bajcetic Liverpool ’s new best player.
"He's a great player and person, he always tries to work hard," Salah's said after beating Everton, before he added "since he started playing for us, he has been our best player."
The 18-year-old was taken aback at Salah’s claim, but few could argue of his importance to a Liverpool side firmly in a period of transition. "A top player. It's a joy to work with him," Jurgen Klopp said of the Spain youth international - who is also eligible to represent Serbia. "The mix of Serbia and Spain is good for his football. He's an intelligent boy.”
But his father, Srdan, has revealed that his son’s footballing story could have been vastly different. Liverpool swooped in to sign Bajcetitc from Celta Vigo when he was 16, but only after rivals Manchester United had made the first move.
“Some scouts from Liverpool saw him and contacted us. But Stefan was still a child, not even 16 years old. He couldn’t go anywhere,” he told El Mundo via Sport Witness. "At first, Liverpool told us that they couldn’t do it and then United called us, that they could. Liverpool found out and contacted us again to sign him.”
He added: “He was lucky and he took advantage of an unexpected opportunity. It fills me with pride, of course, and we hope it continues like this.
“I see him well, focused and realistic, aware that he has to push to continue there. If I see that he is confused, I will tell him something, because the difference between a top player and a good player is the head and the mentality. And now he is more serious, he sees things and football differently. He almost thinks more like an Englishman.”
With Erik ten Hag’s reputation for nurturing young talent, had he ended up at Old Trafford, it’s likely that his trajectory would have followed a very similar pattern. But the sliding doors moment could be another deal which haunts the Red Devils for years to come.
It was a similar story with Bajcetic’s former team-mate Sadio Mane. "I have to say, I was really close to going to Manchester United. I had the contract there. I had it all agreed,” the Senegalese star explained. "It was all ready, but instead, I thought, 'No, I want to go to Liverpool.' I was convinced to go with (Jurgen) Klopp's project.”
Bajcetic still has a way to go to rub salt in United’s wound so emphatically, but he’s already made an excellent start in showing he was another one that got away.
