Over half of the fans believe in VfB Stuttgart's Sasa Kalajdzic and Borna Sosa departing

VfB Stuttgart has begun their pre-season preparations without any new signings and without six national players. Among those absent were Atakan Karazor, who was arrested during his holiday and remains in custody in Spain, as well as sought-after top players Sasa Kalajdzic and Borna Sosa. FanQ surveyed football fans in the country in this context, asking whether the Swabians would lose both key players.

VfB Stuttgart is reliant on transfer income

The club is reportedly willing to let both Kalajdzic and Sosa leave for an appropriate transfer fee. However, the absence of the two players is not related to their desire to move. Rather, the pair still have leave until 4 July 2022, after being on international duty with their national teams in the Nations League. It is still unclear whether the two key players will return to VfB afterwards.

Striker Kalajdzic, who has been involved in 30 goals (22 goals, eight assists) in 48 Bundesliga appearances for the Swabians so far, has recently been linked with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. However, the interest from the two top clubs has reportedly cooled. Left-back Sosa, who has so far recorded 20 scorer points (one goal, 19 assists) in 66 top-flight matches for VfB, is being linked with Chelsea FC.

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„Regardless of the financial situation, we have the sporting desire to extend contracts with our best players,“ Stuttgart's sporting director Sven Mislintat is quoted as saying by the portal „sport.de“. „And at the moment, the market is still very quiet. One cannot yet foresee what will happen,“ the 49-year-old continued. Nevertheless, one should not take too long to create clarity, as their own transfer activities depend in part on how things proceed with Kalajdzic and Sosa. In any case, according to Mislintat, VfB will „once again have to generate a significant transfer surplus this transfer summer as things stand,“ so a sale of the Austrian and/or the Croatian seems relatively likely.

FanQ therefore surveyed German football fans asking if they believed the two Stuttgart top players would leave. Over half of the respondents (58.93 %) assume that both Sasa Kalajdzic and Borna Sosa will leave VfB. A further 16.07 lieve one of the two players will leave. Only 12.50 % think that the Swabians can keep both key players. In view of the problems, the Stuttgart sporting director explained to „Sport1“ that „nothing other than the renewed objective of staying in the league“ was realistic.