Stefan Bajcetic Confirms He Could Stay With Red Bull Salzburg Next Season After Liverpool Decision
Liverpool midfielder Stefan Bajcetic has disclosed that he could extend his loan move to Red Bull Salzburg next season as the club continue to monitor his progress in Austria.
The 20-year-old completed a season-long loan move to the Austrian outfit at the end of August and has since racked up 11 appearances across all competitions as Salzburg lie 3rd in the Austrian Bundesliga table.
Former Reds assistant Pepijn Lijnders played a key role in luring Bajcetic to the club. The highly-rated midfielder joined Salzburg for playing time after spending over a year sidelined through injury after a breakthrough campaign at Anfield in 2022/23.
While away on international duty for Spain's U21s, Bajcetic has confirmed that he could stay with Salzburg next season as he looks to regain top form once again.
"Finding the minutes I was missing. After such a long injury I need to play," Bajcetic told Marca.
"I made the decision to go to Salzburg because I thought I would get minutes and I am getting them. They [Liverpool] are in contact with me practically every week asking me how I am and physically giving me gym guidelines so I don't relapse.
Bajcetic added: "Being on-loan in Salzburg and since Liverpool are not going to the [Club] World Cup, I have the option of choosing whether to return to Liverpool or do the World Cup with Salzburg.
"If I return to Liverpool, I have an option to come to the [U21's] European Championship and it is something that would make me very excited.
"I missed the last [Olympic] Games and [U21's] European Championships due to injury. I have never been to a championship like this with the national team, I am looking forward to it."
New head coach Arne Slot sanctioned Stefan Bajcetic's move to Salzburg and explained the rationale behind his exit back in August.
The Dutchman said: “I hope it will be a big year for him because he’s a very talented player and I think he could become a very important player for us, but only if he gets playing time now.
“If you are that young and you’ve been out for so long, the only thing you need is playing time. He could have playing time over here, but we’ve got six or seven very good midfielders, so his playing time here will always be more limited than we expect him to play at Salzburg.
“So for him, and us, we think it’s best for him to play at the moment, instead of maybe playing a few times and then being on the bench for a long time again. It’s very difficult to keep a player fit who’s been out for 15 months when you only play him once in a while.
“So this is for the long term. Again, this club has been smart, in my opinion, in the past for not only looking for the short term, but also the long term. It’s a smart decision, at least in our opinion, to let him go somewhere, where he will hopefully play a lot of games.
“Then for next season, we’ll have a player. If he fulfils his potential, [he] could definitely, definitely play for us in the future.”
LFC Transfer Room Football Correspondent. Covered the fortunes of Liverpool for the past three years. Follow Joseph on X (formerly Twitter) @joseph_agbobli