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Leeds fans haven’t been this excited to meet a new Slovenian since Zan Benedicic landed at Elland Road in 2014. And then there was Darko Milanic. What do you mean: “Who?!” Darko Milanic, the Leeds United manager between 23 September and 25 October 2014? Never mind. There’s a new man from Europe’s green treasure: Jaka Bijol.
Leeds United’s second signing of the summer transfer window arrives not only to help the club stay in the Premier League, but to enhance the reputation of Slovenian football in the city after those two interesting cameos in 2014. Different times.
Bijol started his senior career as a defensive midfielder with Rudar Velenje in Slovenia’s top flight, debuting at 18 and immediately becoming a mainstay in the first team throughout the 2017/18 season.
He joined CSKA Moscow in summer 2018, where coach Viktor Goncharenko experimented with Bijol, using him as a centre-forward in some matches. There’s even a clip of the man we’re now calling The Slovenian John Charles scoring against Anzhi.
Bijol spent 2020/21 on loan at Hannover in 2. Bundesliga, searching for regular first team football and impressed enough to come back to CSKA Moscow and start in his new position of centre-back.
Udinese’s long history of plucking talented players from the more obscure leagues saw them pick Bijol up for a mere €4m in July 2022, a fee perhaps discounted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bijol comes to Leeds off the back of three years in an Udinese side that’s taken several different guises thanks to coaching and playing staff changes. Udinese share owners with Watford and, seemingly, similar approaches to job security also.
They narrowly avoided relegation in 2023/24 after hiring Fabio Cannavaro for the final five matches of the season. He picked up nine points and proved that hitting the panic button can work so long as you don’t have Sam Allardyce show up at your door.
A strong showing at Euro 2024 saw Bijol linked with Inter and Roma, rumours that refused to die down after this past campaign in which he was named vice-captain and helped take Udinese to a 12th place finish.
The Italian media were desperate to sell him off to any of the country’s vaunted clubs across the past twelve months, but have had no such luck.
Unless you count a season playing in front of Marco Silvestri’s goal at Udinese, then no. Bijol encountered the likes of Joel Piroe and Ilia Gruev on the youth international circuit and even marked Zan Benedicic in a 3-1 win against Celje back in Slovenia, but he arrives at Leeds with minimal baggage.
Marking both Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham out of the game in Slovenia’s 0-0 draw with England at Euro 2024. He gave both players nothing for ninety minutes and the result ensured Slovenia defied expectations to qualify for the knockout stages.
It was likely that his performance in Cologne left scouts wanting more Bijol. And it probably launched a thousand transfer stories that have dragged on ever since until he became a Leeds United player one Monday in June.
Bijol came into the tournament as a support act behind Slovenia’s wunderkind centre-forward Benjamin Šeško, but it was the defender who came out of the Euros with their reputation enhanced.
Throttling his own teammate Lorenzo Lucca in a match earlier this year. Lucca, a 6ft7ins centre forward, nicked the ball off team captain Florian Thauvin after Udinese won a penalty at Lecce in late February.
With the match at 0-0, Lucca thought he’d usurp Thauvin — who’s the assigned penalty taker as well as captain — and a minute long argument ensued as the lanky lad used his considerable height and self-confidence to make sure nobody got the ball off him.
Bijol stepped in, hoping to speak some sense into Lucca, but ended up providing the ultimate freeze frame. It’s the ‘You’re probably wondering how I ended up here’ moment in Lucca’s career, but he smashed the penalty in and celebrated — alone — as his goal proved to be the only in a 1-0 win.
Perhaps if Bijol had been around Leeds United the past few years then Patrick Bamford’s penalty record wouldn’t be quite so bad.
This was a transfer that felt like it dragged because people — looking at you, Fabrizio Romano — craved the attention that came with drip feeding morsels of information online. Those with a life always thought it would get done, and it did. Who’d have thought?!
But when it came around, we got a no-nonsense announcement that befits the player. There was no thread of social media posts teasing the 5pm announcement on Monday with emojis and moody photos. It’s just #WelcomeJaka and a five-year deal.
The pleasant surprise was the fee of £15m plus bonuses. Decent business, indeed.
When asked if he agreed with his teammates calling him the toughest player at Udinese, Bijol said: “I’d like to think so.” That might ring a little too close to Rasmus Kristensen’s self-proclaimed hardness but it’s fair to say that Italy is a more testing environment than Austria. Plus, any footballer would look hard beside Brenden Aaronson and Max Wober.
He comes across as quite a serious person in interviews. When he’s not confirming himself as Udinese’s Begbie, big Jaka spends most of his time in front of the press being refreshingly earnest. He told The Italian Football Podcast that he prefers Lionel Messi over Cristiano Ronaldo — proving his own intelligence — and when asked to name his five dream dinner guests, he named four Slovenian teammates and Udinese striker Ilija Nestorovski.
Speaking to Serie A’s official channel last year, he was asked to name his favourite local Udine meal: “Sandaniele [prosciutto] and maybe some Parmigiano [cheese] with some wine is a nice aperitivo.” A man of culture and violence.
If Leeds’ mantra for 2025/26 is to be the biggest, meanest lads in the playground, then Bijol will win us over with his contributions. A centre-back pairing with Joe Rodon should provide gladiatorial entertainment, especially with Ethan Ampadu sat in front of them.
Visualise, if you can, Bruno Fernandes doing his best to run the referee while Bijol, Rodon and Ampadu push him around like bullies in a teenage movie.
Bijol is a big, physical defender who has shown versatility throughout his career and, as a result, has become a more complete footballer than your average defender. He’s a decent ball player with the perfect aggression and ability to read the game that will help set him up for the fight ahead this season.
It’s worth saying that he’s far from just a big lad with a propensity for heading footballs and his goal against Monza last season showed as much. Maybe he really is our John Charles of the social media generation. Hopefully we don’t end up selling him to rebuild the West Stand. ⬢
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