Failed Wonderkid #9- Alen Halilovic

Biodata

Full Name: Alen Halilovic

Nationality: Croatian

Date of Birth: 18 June 1996

Position: Attacking Midfielder

Current Club: SC Heerenveen (on loan from AC Milan)

Current Market Price: 1.75 mil Euro (Updated on Dec 2019)

Highest Market Price: 10.00 mil Euro (Feb 2016)

Former Clubs:

2012- 2014 Dinamo Zagreb

2014- 2015 Barcelona B

2015- 2016 Barcelona

2015- 2016 Sporting Gijon (loan)

2016- 2018 Hamburger SV

2017- 2018 Las Palmas (loan)

2018- AC Milan

2019 Standard Liege (loan)

International Career:

2013- Croatia

Achievement:

Dinamo Zagreb

2012- 2013 Prva HNL

2013 Croatian Supercup

2013- 2014 Prva HNL

Barcelona

2014- 2015 Copa del Rey

Career

Crowned as the ‘Croatian Messi’ at his teenage years, the youngest ever goalscorer in the Prva HNL (Croatian Premier League) and the youngest ever debutant in the Croatian national team, his career was destined to start in a very high standard. He was considered to be one of the most promising young talents of European football and managed to catch the attention of several European clubs at the time. So how does his career progress since he breaks into the scene?

Alen Halilovic started his footballing career in the youth setup of the Croatian giant, Dinamo Zagreb. At the age of 16, he made his professional debut in the ‘Eternal Derby’ against Hadjuk Split, when he replaced Sammir for the final ten minutes. This appearance made Halilovic as the youngest ever debutant in the entire club history. Halilovic even scored his first professional career goal in the next match and break the record of a certain Mateo Kovacic’s record as the youngest ever goalscorer in the league. In the same season, Halilovic even made his European debut against Paris Saint Germain in the same season. Thus, he became the club’s youngest player to feature in a Champions League match and also the second-youngest player in the history of the competition. On June 2013, Halilovic even gets his national team debut for the senior team against Portugal in a friendly. He subsequently became the youngest debutant in the history of Croatia national team. All of a sudden, he captured a lot of attention from both local and internationally.

On March 2014, Barcelona had reached an agreement with Dinamo Zagreb to sign Halilovic on July 2014. He was subsequently assigned to the Barcelona B side. However, Barcelona had announced that they will be banned from signing players until summer 2015 had put the move in doubt at once. Fortunately, Barcelona’s transfer ban was postponed as they were pending an appeal, which allowed this transfer to go on. Halilovic first season in Barcelona was mainly stuck in the reserve team. He registered 4 goals and 1 assist in 29 games for Barcelona B side in all competition. Despite his great performance in the reserve team, his only senior team appearance was the Copa del Rey match against Elche CF on January 2015.

In order to gain more playing time, Halilovic was loaned out to Sporting Gijon in the 2015-2016 season. Halilovic registered 5 goals and 5 assists in all competition in that season that helped Sporting Gijon narrowly escaped relegation. At the end of the season, Halilovic was sold by his parent club to Hamburger SV for 5.5mil Euro with a 10mil Euro buy-back clause. However, his playing time was also limited as he only appeared in 6 league games in that season. Halilovic was subsequently moved on to Las Palmas on an 18-month loan deal. His debut match in Las Palmas was disastrous as he received a straight red in just over half an hour. In his 18-month stay in Las Palmas, he only registered 2 goals and 3 assists in all competition. However, his attacking attributes are improving as he registered 1.9 shot per game and 1.6 dribbles in his last season in Las Palmas.

On July 2018, Alen Halilovic joined AC Milan on a free transfer to rediscover his potential. Unfortunately, he was still struggling to gain any game time in the Serie A. Until the time of writing, he was yet to play for AC Milan in the competitive match. He was loaned out to Standard Liege until June 2020 to nurture his talent. Halilovic’s performance was still below par and his loan move got cancelled at the end of the season. On September 2019, Halilovic was loaned out again. This time to the Dutch side, Heerenveen. He had a relatively better season in the Netherlands as he registered one assist in 11 games at the time of writing.

Verdict

Disappointment Rate: 8/10. You know that you will be expecting more when you had crowned as the ‘Next Messi’. Halilovic career might not be started as he expected, at the age of just 23, he is still far from the finishing note of a player. All he needs is more game time and pick up his potential that caught everyone’s eye at the beginning of his career.