In the Europa League in the early hours of this morning, more than 30,000 fans in Frankfurt poured into camp Nou to turn Barca's home into a white ocean, and finally their 3-2 away victory over Barca broke a big cold, and the team also advanced to the final four.
Frankfurt wing-back Costis became the hero of the team, scoring two goals and delivering one assist, one person participating in all the team's goals, in addition to three key passes. Whether it's rating sites like whoscored or sofasocre, Costic scored the highest in the whole game. In addition, he was shortlisted for the Europa League Player of the Week.
In contrast to the big shine at Camp Nou, last summer, Kostic left the team for a transfer, and even forced him to strike, and the serbian, who has always been conscientious, was pushed to the cusp.
Strike storm
In the third round of the Bundesliga this season, the healthy Krstic did not make the roster for frankfurt against Bielefeld, what happened to Kostic, who started the first two league rounds?
In an interview with Sky Sports, Club Sport Director Colescher said Kostic refused to participate in training so he failed to make it into the squad, stressing that the Serbian was an important part of the team's plan. Team coach Grasner also spoke out about the matter, "Kostic wanted to transfer and leave the team, he did not participate in training and turned off the phone. ”
German football was buzzing about Kostic's confrontation with the club in such an unfriendly way, with the head of sports also commenting on it in an interview with Bild: "As a sports executive, you can't be forced by players in a difficult situation. If the transfer window is manipulated by players two days ago, it's a bad thing. ”
Kostic's strike, German media opinion almost unanimously fell to the club, after all, when the transfer window is about to close, the club will be at an absolute disadvantage in the negotiations.
Then the real situation is more complicated. After the summer window closed, the famous Italian journalist Di Marzio broke the inside story in a column, saying that Frankfurt even sent a fake email to deceive the players in order to hinder The Transfer of Costic. Since Frankfurt and Lazio had not negotiated the transfer fee, Frankfurt deliberately sent a wrong email to Lazio pretending not to receive the offer and telling Costici Lazio that the price had never been officially quoted.
However, Costic's agent Madani posted a screenshot of Lazio's official offer to Kostic's mobile phone, debunking the club's lies, which made Kostic very angry, so the always professional Kostic took the extreme way of boycotting to express his dissatisfaction.
In fact, Kostic has never been a thorn in the head, and the club's elder Makoto Hasebe said that Kostic is a very hard-working player, and whenever the training is over, he will go to the gym to practice.
After the summer window, Kostic, who could not leave the team, finally reconciled with the team, and he also issued a statement apologizing to the misguided fans and stressing that he would fight for Frankfurt with the best mental outlook.
From where to relegate to the best player in the five major league passes
When Kostic switched from the domestic league to Groningen in 2012, in the second season of joining the team, the 22-year-old Kostic began to show his talent, scoring 11 goals and delivering 7 assists in 38 Dutch league matches in the 2013-14 season, and foreign sports media bleacherreport even compared Kostic and Robben.
It was from Groningen that Robin who scored six goals and provided three assists for his youth team in the 2001–02 season, before being acquired by Eindhoven that summer for 4.3 million euros. And Kostic, who is also a left-footed kick on the wing, will inevitably be compared with Robben.
And it turns out that Kostic is Groningen's best winger after Robben. Like his predecessor Robben, The final destination of Kostic's career was the Bundesliga.
In the summer of 2014, Stuttgart spent 6 million euros to take Costich under his account. In his first season, Kostic scored 3 goals and assisted 5 of his 28 Bundesliga appearances (15 starts), which is also an integration into the team. However, in the second season, the team's record plummeted, the Ukrainian center Kravets could not find shooting boots at all, the 20-year-old Timo Wernabi was fashionable and immature, in November 2015 the coach Zonegg was tragically fired by the chairman Waller, and the fire-fighting U23 coach Cramney led the team to play the rest of the game, directly into the Bundesliga.
Kostic, who contributed five goals and five assists in the league this season, finally joined Hamburg in the summer of 2015, and the transfer fee of 14 million euros is also a recognition of his ability, and his value has more than doubled in just two years.
However, tragedy struck again, and in the second season in Hamburg, the team was relegated again. Hamburg boss Gisdor played dirk Meyer and Kostic crosses from the wing, but the team lacked centre-forwards with excellent point-grabbing ability. After two changes of manager, in the second half Of the second half Titus transferred The position of Kostic to the right side, which he was not good at, and although Kostic missed a penalty against Mainz in the 25th round and caused the team to lose points, Hamburg's overall weakness and failure to find a suitable tactical system were the main reasons for their relegation. It's hard to imagine that Costic made 30 league appearances that season and scored just one assist.
Kostic did not want to play in the Bundesliga and eventually Hamburg loaned him to Eintracht Frankfurt for two years (after which he was bought out).
After arriving in Frankfurt, Kostic finally found a suitable stage for himself, and under the guidance of coach Adi Hüttel, Kostic's level took off. In 2018-2021 he assisted double-doubles in the Bundesliga for three consecutive seasons, and Kicker Magazine also voted Kostic as an intercontinental winger, which is the top in the Bundesliga because their selection of world-class is vacant.
When Kostic learned in 2021 that Schutter would leave the team, he expressed his gratitude to his mentor in an interview with the Bundesliga website: "All these years we have been trying to reach a higher level, but when we approached, he was leaving. It was hard for me to give up and his decision hit me hard because he was the best coach I've ever worked with. He told me the tactics on the pitch and where I had to stand and explained to me how I was going to do it, which showed that he was a great coach who was well versed in tactics and he helped me improve a lot. ”
Equip Costic with a centre-forward with excellent point-grabbing ability, then he will assist like a hemp. In the 2018-19 season, Kostic delivered 10 assists in the league, most of which were given to center Alai and compatriot Jovic; last season The Portuguese André Silva scored 28 goals in the Bundesliga, 8 of which came from Kostic's assists, and the two were also the most tacit combination last season, A finally ranked second in the top scorer list, and Kostic also sent a record 14 cakes to rank second in the assists list.
Although Kostic lost his best assist after A-seat left the team last summer, the new main striker Borre is only 1.74 meters tall and has less ability to grab points than Silva. But so far this season, Kostic has still delivered eight assists in the Bundesliga, and is very hopeful to have four consecutive seasons of league assists in double figures.
How strong is Kostic's crossing ability? Statistically, he is the first of the five leagues. In this season's Europa League, Costic averaged 3.1 accurate crosses per game to rank first in the tournament. On the list of five major league crosses, Kostic averaged 3.4 successful crosses per game and remained the first, bearing in mind that top passers such as Arnold and Payette only averaged 2.4 successful crosses per game.
Next stop in Serie A?
Lazio showed his determination to take Down Kostic in action last year, and Sarri admires Kostic very much. Who doesn't appreciate a player like Kostic?
When he debuted, foreign media often referred to him as a new Robben, but they were not the same type of player. Robben excelled at cutting inside the right and was a more attacking player, while Kostic, although also left-footed, preferred to play on the left, scoring most of his 11 goals in a single season in the Eredivisie.
After coming to the Bundesliga, Kostic has fixed his own playing style, that is, mainly crosses, and in recent years, his route on the field has changed more, and he has also said that he will often move to the middle, which makes it more difficult for him to be pondered and prejudged by opponents, and the goal against Barca also shows this.
In fact, I think Kostic's style is more similar to Perisic's, although Perisic is a right-footed player, but his reverse foot ability is very strong, and he is quite smooth in his left-foot crosses on the left side. Inter wanted to sign a winger to replace the elderly Perisic in the winter window, signing the former between Gossens and Kostic. Therefore, they should not pursue Kostic again.
Roma have also always had a soft spot for Costic as Mourinho wants to reform the team's tactics by bringing in wingers like Costic. At Chelsea that year, Mourinho's whirlwind of quick playing with Dunf and Robben was eye-catching, and the introduction and reuse of Di Maria at Real Madrid made the team the strongest counterattack in Europe. The hard-working, defensive and technically skilled Kostic (with 90 and 91 in FIFA22) is definitely Mourinho's dish, will they join forces this summer?
In addition to Lazio and Roma, AC Milan is also very interested in Costic. Lazio has a hard work, Roma has a Mourinho attraction, and AC Milan is a Champions League allure for Costic. In an interview with the Bundesliga website last year, Kostic expressed his desire for the Champions League. Coupled with this match against Barca in the Europa League, which has brought him a huge reputation, he may be more hopeful about the Champions League.
This season, Frankfurt is only 9th in the Bundesliga, doomed to miss next season's European competition, coupled with the departure of his mentor Schüter last year, and the club management is still suspicious, I think Kostic is very likely to leave the team this summer. After all, his contract will expire in 2023, and it is estimated that he will not renew his contract, and Frankfurt will also promote the transfer for silver.
Last season, Kostic and Portuguese centre-forward Andre Silva formed the best pairing, in the first leg of the World Preliminary Tournament between Serbia and Portugal, Kostic helped the country score the equalizer, helped the team to cut a point, thus affecting the subsequent battle situation and indirectly allowing Portugal to play the play-offs.
So if I had to predict, I would predict that Costic would join Roma, coached by the Portuguese. (Supine Braces/Qiu Yixi)