Official: Miralem Pjanic Signs + Other Transfer News

By: Inara | June 6th, 2008

This morning, Lyon finally clinched the signature of Miralem Pjanic, who is the hottest talent in France not born in 1987. Lyon have been negotiating with Metz for weeks, but to so many clubs interested, many with late bids, the deal took quite a long time in being crafted. He’s had Europe’s biggest clubs interested in him (Barcelona and Bayern made concrete offers while Arsenal, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid were also interested in his signature). But Pjanic preferred to stay in France, which was good for Lyon.

Metz will receive €7.5m in the initial transfer fee, but that could rise to €9m when bonuses are factored in (based on Lyon’s results in the next few seasons). The duration of Pjanic’s contract is five years, and contrary to the rumors in the media, Pjanic will not be loaned back out again.

Some details on Pjanic:

Name: Miralem Pjanic
Age: 18
Position: Midfielder/Winger
Previous Clubs: Metz

At only 18 years of age, he’s one of the youngest signings Lyon have made in recent years that will be added straight to the senior team (as opposed to the academy or reserves). Pjanic has only played in the top flight for one season, and with the worst club in the league at that. So at first glance, his resume looks rather unimpressive.

But you only have to watch him for a few minutes to realize that he’s special. Really special. His age and his circumstances don’t matter because he has so much talent, it’s outrageous. Of course, he’s not even close to a finished product – I would say that he’s still very raw – but he has so much room to progress that when I imagine what he could be in two years time, I get dizzy.

He is classified as an attacking midfielder, but he can play almost anywhere up front – on both wings, behind the strikers, and even in advanced positions in midfielder, which is most likely where he’ll start out at Lyon.

If I had to make player comparisons (keep in mind that I’ve only seen him play ten or fifteen times this year), I’d say he was more of a Franck Ribery style player and therefore not a true playmaker. He’s creative, but he doesn’t necessarily direct the rest of his team like say Juninho. There’s some debate as to whether he’s a classic #10, but the thing with Pjanic is that he’s so young and so talented that he could turn out to be almost anything he wanted.

I do have to admit that as much as I like Pjanic and am glad that he signed with us, I also don’t trust him. While I won’t go so far as to call him a mercenary, he is an opportunist who is more than content to use Lyon as a springboard for bigger and better things. Not that I think it’s necessarily a bad thing because it’s totally unreasonable to expect that every player who comes to Lyon thinks of it as a final destination – in fact I’m sure most of our players, including Ederson and Hugo Lloris, don’t think so. But with Pjanic, it just seems to be on the surface, like he’ll admit it if you ask him.

So I’m going to keep this in mind over the next two years so that when he does leave, I won’t get my heart broken.

A short youtube clip:

OTHER TRANSFER NEWS:

*Loic Remy has officially signed with Nice for €8m. According to the Lyon website, another €3m could be added in terms of incentives over the next four years – but I’m a bit unclear if that €3m is for Nice or Lyon. It doesn’t make sense why Nice would get €3m from Lyon after already paying €8m, so I’m a little foggy on the exact details. There is also a rumor that if Nice choose to sell him before his contract ends, Lyon have the option of buying him back for €12m. I have no idea if it’s true though.

* Another youth academy graduate, Lossémy Karaboué, signed for Ligue 2 club Sedan a few days ago. He was a promising player (and one of Corey’s favorites), but unfortunately, Lyon had no room for him – not even on the bench. So he’s doing the next best thing – proving himself at an L2 club, and if he really has the talent, we’ll be seeing him back in the topflight soon enough.

* But one academy player that Lyon did have room for was Pierrick Valdivia (no relation to Jorge, I’m afraid), a midfielder who was also in the reserves. He was taken along with the rest of the squad on their trip to Dubai, where he played in the friendly against Al-Shabab. Valdivia scored a goal and also got red carded, so I’m guessing he made a good impression.

* Werder Bremen have offered €10m for Fred. As far as I’m aware, Fred is happy at Lyon – for now. But I’m sure we’ll hear more about this later.

* No word yet on who the coach will be though I expect we may find out as early as next week. I’m praying it’s not Vanderlei Luxemburgo.

* Fiorentina are REALLY interested in Anthony Reveillere and have already offered him a contract. Lyon are demanding €7m. I’m not sure what Reveillere’s response was or if Fiorentina will meet Aulas’s demands.

* In the event Reveillere does leave, Lyon have expressed their interest in Mickaël Chrétien of Nancy and Stephan Lichtsteiner of Lille.

* Cleber Anderson will be loaned to a Brazilian club – Sao Paulo and Corinthians are the two most likely destinations.

* Fabio Grosso is being pursued bu Juventus, Roma, and Fiorentina. Thankfully, he’s reaffirmed that he’ll be staying at Lyon. Good. I’ve gotten attached to his personality, and I think is playing as really improved from what it was when he first came here.

* Atletico Madrid, Portsmouth, and now Roma have lodged their interest in Sidney Govou, who is considering leaving. Yeah right. He just wants a fatter contract.

* Lyon are interested in Real Zaragoza’s Diego Milito and Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano. I have my doubts on either of those two choosing Lyon, but who knows, right?

* Soufiane Alloudi of Al Ain is a Lyon target, though Marseille want him really badly as well. My theory is that Aulas is interested just to piss Pape Diouf off.

* Aulas has put a €20, price tag on Hatem Ben Arfa’s head, which is about €15m in real money. Marseille and PSG are the most interested, but there are foreign clubs as well.

* Sevilla are prepared to offer €14m for Kim Kallstrom. This is one deal I expect Aulas to take.