The Swiss midfielder of Club Brugge is no stranger to episodes of breaking with his club in order to force a transfer.
Ardon Jashari is still waiting. Hoping that the efforts made over the past two months to reiterate to Brugge his firm desire to take a significant step forward in his career will break down the resistance of the Belgian club and push him into the arms of Milan. There is still no agreement between the clubs, with the Rossoneri standing firm on their last offer of 33.5 million euros plus 4.5 in bonuses (of which 1.5 are easy to achieve), definitive, according to what sporting director Igli Tare has communicated, and Club Brugge still demanding 40 million, bonuses included.
In the meantime, the Swiss player, who celebrated his 23rd birthday today, continues to be somewhat of an outsider to the team. After having missed a large part of preseason training by working separately, after being absent both for the Belgian Supercup match against Union Saint-Gilloise and the league opener against Genk, Jashari will also not feature on Friday evening in the second round of the Jupiler League against Mechelen. And with the Champions League qualifying round against Salzburg approaching (first leg August 5/6, return the following week), the doubts over whether and when the 2002-born midfielder will again be available to Club Brugge’s coach Nicky Hayen are growing, as pointed out by Calciomercato.com.
These days, by mutual agreement with the club and due to an arrangement secured months ago, Jashari is in North Macedonia to attend his brother’s wedding. An engagement respected by his current club and a gesture to be interpreted as conciliatory in a moment of high tension, fueled by his refusal to consider any alternative offers besides the one from Milan, in recent days, some second-tier Premier League clubs have again been mentioned, but also a situation that goes in the opposite direction of the intransigent stance shown so far by Club Brugge’s upper management in negotiations with the Rossoneri.
On one hand, the desire not to give in even slightly to the pressure exerted by the player’s entourage and the public messages sent by Milan’s sporting director Igli Tare in recent days, and to stick to the demand of selling Jashari only for 40 million euros, bonuses included. On the other hand, the decision to avoid direct confrontation and punitive measures against a player who, unilaterally, has chosen to step aside, to remove himself from the team dynamic, and to announce that he will never again wear the Club Brugge shirt. This has led him to not take part in fan meet-ups during the summer and to see his life-sized poster disappear from the locker rooms of the “Jan Breydel” stadium.
An attitude which had also been adopted during his previous experience at Lucerne, though with less satisfying results. Before moving to Belgium in January 2024, Ardon Jashari had only ever worn the shirt of the Swiss club, where he played first in the youth sector and then, from January 2022, in the first team. Everything proceeded smoothly until summer 2023 when, with the captain’s armband on his arm, the midfielder decided to break away. And began to apply pressure to be sold to Basel. The script is not very different from the one currently being used in the tug-of-war with Club Brugge to join AC Milan: he did not show up for training camp, loudly demanded a transfer, but in the end, Lucerne held firm, reintegrated him into the squad, and only after a long time gave him back the armband. A sort of déjà vu, with an outcome yet to be determined. Will Jashari’s chosen tactic pay off this time?
