Kosta Nedeljkovic ‘waived his salary’ to move to RB Leipzig from Aston Villa in the January transfer window.
That’s according to journalist Philipp Hinze, who reports that Nedeljkovic took a financial hit to ensure he got a move away from Aston Villa.
The right-back joined the German side on loan on deadline day of the winter window, moving until the end of the season, although the deal does include an option for Leipzig to sign him permanently for €15m.
All indications are that the Bundesliga side will look to make that move permanent in the summer, with Aston Villa clearly open to a sale despite their problems at right-back this season.
And it seems Nedeljkovic is keen on the switch too, with Hinze reporting that he ‘waived his salary’ to secure the move to Leipzig.
He doesn’t explain what that means exactly as it’s obvious Nedeljkovic isn’t playing for free in Germany and wouldn’t be in future either. We’ll assume he means the youngster waived a part of his Aston Villa salary to secure the move as Leipzig didn’t want to pay in full.
Either way they’re seeing it as a major positive and a fact that the Serbian ‘really wanted’ to go to Leipzig in the window. We’d suggest that might be a bit of German propaganda at this point and we’ll wait for later in the season ahead of getting excited on their behalf.
Manager Marco Rose is quoted as saying: “Really good boy who really wanted to come here. Great signal (the salary effort), and that’s how he behaves.”
