Novi Beograd revealed the compensation price for letting Nikola Jaksic go from the club.
As we reported, Jaksic can leave the club even though his contract is valid until 2025. But his new club has to pay compensation.
Novi Beograd’s director, Slobodan Soro, revealed in an interview with Sport Klub that the compensation fee is 150.000 euros. Soro explained that they were not satisfied with Jaksic’s performance, which is why they are letting him leave under these conditions.
“This is the price, I think we invested a lot, but we didn’t get what we expected,” Slobodan Soro said.
The compensation fee is quite high, so it remains to be seen if any club will be willing to pay it.
If Jaksic doesn’t find a new club, he will receive his salary from Novi Beograd for the next season, but he will not play, Soro said in the interview with the sportklub.rs.
However, there is still a possibility that Jaksic might stay at Novi Beograd and get a chance to play. Soro stated that it depends on Jaksic’s performance.
“He is here all summer, if he proves himself, we may change our minds. But, so far, he hasn’t been the player we expected,” Slobodan Soro explained.
Jaksic, a double Olympic champion, arrived at Novi Beograd in 2021 from Ferencvaros. It is rumored that several clubs, including Pro Recco and Ferencvaros, are interested in signing Jaksic. The Budapest-based side recently signed Dusan Mandic, who left Novi Beograd before the expiration of the contract, so it’s questionable if Ferencvaros is ready to enter new negotiations with Novi Beograd and pay the compensation fee.
“Jaksic case” in March
If Jaksic doesn’t find a new club and doesn’t play official matches in the next season, that will certainly affect the national team since he is one of Serbia’s key players.
This is not the first time that Novi Beograd’s decisions have impacted the national team directly or indirectly.
In March, the club didn’t let Nikola Jaksic join the national team in the preparations and World Cup Division 1 tournament. The reason was that he hadn’t recovered from an injury, the club explained then.
Maybe he really wasn’t fully recovered and ready for challenging games in the national team. Maybe head coach Uros Stevanovic made a mistake by calling up Jaksic. Maybe Novi Beograd made a reasonable decision for Jaksic’s health and the national team’s future.
There were many “maybe”.
We don’t want to judge who was doing the right thing, but the Serbian Law on Sports, the Water Polo Federation of Serbia’s Rulebook, as well as some LEN and World Aquatics’ regulations, prescribe that a club is obligated to enable its athlete to participate in national sports teams when invited to the national team.
Serbia’s head coach Uros Stevanovic criticized the decision and expected Nikola Jaksic to join the team, as he said in an interview with Total Waterpolo before the World Cup.
There were no official reactions or moves by the Water Polo Federation of Serbia regarding this case before or after the World Cup.
