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Featured Image Credit: Getty & Hajduk Split
Topics: AC Milan, Blackburn Rovers, Serie A
Josh Lawless
Former AC Milan striker Nikola Kalinic has agreed to earn the lowest possible salary after returning to his boyhood club.
The Croatian came through the ranks at Hajduk Split before making his debut at 17.
He went on to score 44 times in 79 games before joining Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £6 million.
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Kalinic had two prolific seasons with Fiorentina and later turned out for AC Milan, Atletico Madrid and Roma.
But fast forward to the present day and Kalinic is back with Hajduk Split, just five months after leaving.
His last contract expired in July 2023 and he embarked on a break from football
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But clearly feeling as though he has unfinished business, he has headed back to the club for a third spell.
At the age of 35, he has penned a short-term deal but will earn just €1(86p).
“It was the easiest deal in my three years with Hajduk," Mindaugas Nikolicius.
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"We agreed on a €1 salary. Nikola wants to help Hajduk win the title, that’s the only reason he came back.”
Hajduk are currently six points clear at the top of the table after 19 games, with Rijeka their closest competition.
Their last league title came in the 2004/05 season, a year before Kalinic debuted in the first-team.
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Kalinic will wear his favoured No.9 shirt after Aleksandar Trajkovski, the previous owner, offered to give it him.
The Macedonian will wear the No.27 jersey for the club going forward.
Players going back to their first clubs for a fairytale send-off are not a rarity.
Last year, former Arsenal forward Lucas Perez dropped down from La Liga to the third tier of Spanish football to return to Deportiva La Coruna.
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He paid part of his £440,000 transfer fee to get the deal over the line and scored twice on his debut.