Lazar Jovanovic Leaves Stuttgart for Udinese

The suitcase, it seems, is already half packed. Nineteen year old Lazar Jovanovic is waiting on a date for his medical, the last formality before a new signature, while his agent and two clubs work through the paperwork behind the scenes. Less than a year after leaving Belgrade for Germany, the young forward is getting ready to pack up again, this time on the road from Stuttgart to Udine.

The transfer, according to Italian media reports, is in its final stage. This is a permanent move, not the loan that was floated earlier as one option while the Bundesliga club looked for a solution for a player who simply wasn’t getting minutes. Once Udinese showed it was ready to buy out his contract outright, the loan idea fell away.

Sources differ on the exact fee. Hotsport reports that Udinese will pay Stuttgart six million euros up front, plus another 1.5 million euros in performance related bonuses. Sportska centrala, citing football insider Fabrizio Romano, gives a slightly different figure: 6.5 million euros guaranteed, plus the same 1.5 million in bonuses. The gap is half a million euros, but the thrust of the story is the same either way. Whether the deal is worth 7.5 million euros or 8 million euros in total, it’s a solid return for Stuttgart on a player they signed from Red Star Belgrade last summer for around five million euros.

Three Games and a Crowded Attack

In a year with the German club’s first team, Jovanovic made just three appearances. The competition for his spot was simply too deep, and that became clear to both club and player over the summer. Rather than sit on the bench in the Bundesliga, the young Serbia international now gets a chance to chase minutes in Serie A, a league that, at least on paper, offers him a more realistic path into a starting lineup.

How Udinese landed on Jovanovic in the first place is a story of its own. The Italians didn’t set their sights on him from the start. The Udine club first tried to sign Jovan Milosevic, another Serbia international on Stuttgart’s books, but Milosevic ultimately chose Portugal’s Braga instead. Only after that did Udinese’s attention turn to his former strike partner, and this second attempt now looks set to succeed.

A Path Through Three Clubs

Jovanovic’s route to European attention has run through several stops. He took his first steps in football at Vojvodina, signed his first professional contract with Red Star Belgrade, and put in the minutes that caught the eye of foreign scouts while on loan at OFK Belgrade. Only after that season did the call from Germany arrive.

The family name carries some weight in Serbian football. His father, Milan Lane Jovanovic, wore the Serbia national team jersey and played in several European leagues, and the son is now trying to build his own career along a similar path. Jovanovic also remains part of Serbia’s youth national team, the age group selection where, for now at least, his development is still being tracked.

As for his position, he’s a wide forward, an attacking player who simply didn’t have a place in Stuttgart’s starting eleven. Italian outlets describe him in similar terms, as reinforcement for the attack, without further detail on exactly which side of the pitch he plays.

If the medical goes smoothly, a contract with Udinese could be signed as early as the first days of September, before the summer transfer window closes. For a 19 year old who has now changed clubs three times in the space of a year, that would mean the end of the waiting and the start of a new fight for playing time, this time in the colors of a club that plays regularly in one of Europe’s five biggest leagues.