Prutsev leaves Zvezda without a fee: 'Dunkirk is a step back'

In the Marakana dressing room after the final match of the season, Prutsev with the team sat on the floor holding a coffee cup in his hands. Only two players were with him, Mirko Ivanic and Ognjen Mimovic, plus one member of the coaching staff. There was no emotion, no “thank you” speech, no farewell call off the pitch he had so believed in. After 15 minutes of silence, the Russian got up and went to the sporting director’s office. Half an hour later he came out with a contract in his hand from a club that already had it ready.

Crvena Zvezda winger Yegor Prutsev, who spent 18 months with the Serbian champions, leaves the club without a fee at the end of his contract on June 30 and signs a three-year deal with French second-tier side Dunkirk. The club invested 800,000 euros in the player, signed from Krasnodar in January 2025, and never sold him on adequately. According to information from Prutsev’s management circle, the Russian international over the last three years had serious offers from Italy and the Netherlands, but turned them down on his own insistence on two occasions, a controversial decision from today’s angle.

Crvena Zvezda statistics and what went wrong

In the Zvezda shirt, Prutsev played 47 official matches, with nine goals and eleven assists. The numbers are acceptable for a wide attacker from the second line, but far from what the club expected when signing him from Krasnodar, where in his last Russian championship season he had 14 goals. Coach Vladan Milojevic, with whom Prutsev went through three formation changes, in a statement on the club’s site in March said the Russian “has talent, but lacks consistent physical fitness”. After that statement, Prutsev barely played for two months, with just four starts in the last seven championship matches.

On the other side, Prutsev in private conversations with several French clubs was clear: he does not want to continue his career in Russia, because of what he called in an interview with French L’Equipe three months ago “the isolation of Russian football”. Dunkirk in recent weeks, after relegation from Ligue 1, brought in sporting director Olivier Sadran, who held talks with Prutsev in Belgrade back in March. The offer was serious: 1.2 million euros a year, with a 500,000-euro bonus for promotion to Ligue 1, twice what Prutsev was earning in Belgrade.

What next for Crvena Zvezda and how do they compensate for the loss?

Sporting director Mitar Mrkela on Tuesday called Prutsev “a player who in Belgrade gave less than he could have”, a more diplomatic formulation for reporters than for the club’s fans on social media. The club will, in exchange for his departure, build a budget for one wide attacker from the Netherlands or Belgium, with an estimate that the window could mean an outlay of around 4 to 5 million euros. Coach Milojevic in private conversation with the club’s board said that for the attacking line they should bring in at least two players in the summer window.

Other Serbian transfers expected in the first days after the end of the championship include the possible return of Filip Mladenovic from Sassuolo to Belgrade, a transfer that has been under consideration in the club’s discussions since March. From Crvena Zvezda there are also exits in the attacking ranks, where Mirko Ivanic, whose contract also runs out at the end of June, could change club. Ivanic has not yet declared on staying, but his management in the last week has been in talks with AEK Athens from Thessaloniki.

On the personal side, I do not see Prutsev’s departure from Crvena Zvezda without a fee as a club tragedy, but as a reminder that the strategy of bringing in players at high cost without a plan for an early exit is expensive. The club over the last three years has repeated this pattern with at least four names: Diego Falcinelli, Lazar Stefanovic, Vladimir Lucic and now Prutsev. With a new sporting director, who after Mrkela could be Igor Burzanovic, the club will have to build a more disciplined model for rotating investment.

Dunkirk play their first match of the 2026-27 season on August 9 at Lille, where Prutsev is expected to be in the starting line-up on the right wing.