Žan Vipotnik, has been linked to Swansea City by the French & Slovenian media today, although his agent, Sašo Župan, is urging caution as the player is allegedly in demand. This news story was written prior to this great news, we can now announce a big welcome to the Swans Zan !
Žan saw his contract terminated yesterday when his club, FC Girondins de Bordeaux, who have lost their professional status in France declared they couldn’t pay professional players contracts. In Žan’s case that meant the five year deal he signed last summer when he signed from Maribor was null and void. His salary was reportedly around £380,000 a year and he returned the faith shown in him by scoring ten goals in thirty seven games last campaign.
Where Žan Vipotnik will continue his career is currently impossible to determine at the time of writing. Many clubs are interested in him. Some mention Crvena zvezda, others Schalke and Bochum, and Sunderland has been in the mix as well. In Croatia, Dinamo Zagreb has been mentioned, and more. The Swans are linked and the player who seemed to think Dinamo Zagreb would come in for him is now weighing up his offers. His agent, Saša Župan has spoken to a source close to this website when he was contacted yesterday. Basically he is very level headed (not Serbian, nor is the news outlet breaking the info on Žan which was reported elsewhere) He urges caution, as all professional sports agents would do, but it seems that his player could well be in line for more in-depth talks today. He recently stated on his players position and Dinamo, "Nothing from Dinamo. No one has called me. I think if Dinamo really wanted him, someone would have called me by now and ‘prepared the ground.’ Therefore, we are not considering Dinamo at all. We do not take it seriously. However, Hajduk and Rijeka have contacted us.”
Many twitter accounts are presenting Žan as a Swans player, and they may well know more than we do, but this has the feeling of a potential transfer which wasn’t planned into Swansea City’s targets this summer. The decline of Bordeaux only being very recent news tells us that the Swans have been working on this for a short period of time. Regardless if this happens it is an excellent piece of work by Paul Watson and his recruiting team over the past week or so. They are very aware that the players coming in have to be up to speed and foot for the Championship. We hopefully will hear some positive news on this tomorrow morning as there is nothing holding Žan back from agreeing terms and signing for Swansea City.
The striker has played at seven levels for his country, Slovenia, and is a full international.
He has been described to us as a very similar player to Mykola Kukharevych who is looking likely to leave the Swans on loan in the next few days. There will be more news on this for sure.