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Ivan Saponjic leads a year and a half practically unprecedented at Atlético. Signed from Benfica’s second team in the summer of 2019, the Serbian has not entered into Simeone’s plans, who has always reiterated that things were clear between the two.
In total, Saponjic played only 109 minutes as rojiblanco despite constantly entering the calls, watching practically every complete game from the bench. In his first season at the club he had 64 minutes, 60 of them in the Cup against Cultural, two against Leganés and another two against Celta in the League. At the beginning of this it had not gotten better. A fleeting participation in Copa, with 20 minutes against Cardassar and 25 against Cornellà, that leave their passage as rojiblanco practically anecdotal.
The cup elimination left him with no hope of participating in the slightest, so Saponjic and Atlético agreed that the best thing for all was an assignment. The 23-year-old has never made a bad face or raised his voice for his low participation despite the fact that on several occasions he was surpassed by homegrown players and players converted to forwards when there were deficiencies at the top. At his age, what he needs is to play, and that’s where Cádiz appeared.
The Andalusian team sees in Saponjic a solution to their problems in front of goal. Álvaro Cervera only has a pair of forwards who are working at the moment, Álvaro Negredo and ‘Choco’ LozanoBut when one is not available, the team is very limited in its options to move the marker. The Serbian arrives in Cádiz to gain a foothold in his schemes and try to aspire to ownership.
Despite how little he has been seen as rojiblanco, Saponjic is a player who stands out for his physical strength, ability to play from behind and good passing game. Cádiz needed to start to register in LaLiga, but with Nano Mesa’s goodbye everything was solved. With more than a week of training with his new teammates, Saponjic entered his first call against Cádiz … to face Atlético. Without ‘fear clause’, It will be an alternative for Cervera from the bench. And the future could bring him a scorer debut in Spain against his club and his great friends Jan Oblak and Stefan Savic.