When Uros Djurdjevic He arrived in Gijón in 2018, almost six months after the death of Enrique Castro, the unforgettable Quini. Djuka, therefore, did not meet the best scorer in Sporting history. However, there will have been few in Mareo who have told him things about the legendary footballer. Very soon the third anniversary of Quini’s death will be celebrated – February 27 – and the Serbian is willing to pay this season the best tribute to the historic player, a tribute loaded with goals.
For now, last Saturday’s hat-trick in Las Gaunas, the first in Spanish football, has placed Uros Djurdjevic at the top of the scoring tables. And the 15 goals that he adds already place the Balkan forward among the best scorers in the club’s history.
Another Serbian, Stefan Scepovic, and David Villa are Sporting’s latest great scoring references. Both were on the verge of getting the Pichichi Trophy. For now the Serbian improves today to the ‘Guaje’, that in 2003 added 10 goals in 24 days and finished second, with 20 goals, behind Jesús Perera (Albacete).
Instead, Scepovic scored one more goal in 2014 (16) than his compatriot in the same number of days. Then he got stuck and ended up sharing the second place in the trophy with Kike García (then in Murcia and today in Eibar), with 23 goals, two less than the former sportinguista Borja Viguera, that year at Alavés.
But Djuka looks for the Pichichi and in the history of Sporting there were three players who got it in the Second Division: Ricardo (1957), Solabarrieta (1967) and Quini (1970 and 1977).
Three ‘pichichis’ in the club
The Valencian Ricardo Alós came away with 46 goals at the end of his only rojiblanco campaign, on loan from Valencia; already added 31 in 24 of the 38 days League. For his part, the Biscayan Francisco Solabarrieta scored 20 goals in the same number of games, to end a league of 30 games with 24 goals.
But Uros Djurdjevic is closer to Quini’s numbers. ‘El Brujo’ had 16 at this time in 1970, when he finished with 24 goals, and two more (18) in 1977, to conquer Pichichi with 27 goals, the best scoring figure of his career. In both cases, those goals served for Sporting to be proclaimed champion and to get promotion to First Division.
Termination clause
Uros Djurdjevic arrived at Sporting in August 2018 and his contract expires on June 30, 2023 after having extended it for one more season in 2019. His termination clause amounts to 30 million euros in Second Division and ten more if the team is promoted to First, as revealed by the footballer himself in an interview on the COPE Asturias stations. The club has neither confirmed nor denied these amounts.
Miguel Torrecilla, now Real Zaragoza’s sports director, was the one who signed Djuka for Sporting, from the Greek Olympiakos. The operation cost the Gijon club 2.5 million euros, which then meant the most expensive signing in history of the entity, a label that the hiring of Manu García (4.5 million to Manchester City) took away a year later.
Djurdjevic begins to make his transfer profitable with goals after two discreet seasons in the filmmaker side. The Serbian got 11 goals (one more in Copa del Rey) in his first season in Gijón and only six last season, which led to place him on the exit ramp of the club. However, the arrival of Javi Rico to the sports management and David Gallego to the bench have been a lifesaver for Djuka, who was targeted as a possible transfer object last summer. Sports director and coaches bet on him and now he is responding with goals, so much so that he is about to exceed the figure of the last two exercises.