Husein Balic only accumulated 189 competitive minutes in the autumn; in the training camp in which LASK is currently preparing for the spring in Belek, there was no more room for the 27-year-old, whose shirt number was taken over by Valon Berisha – everything pointed to a departure, which has now become official: Balic is moving to LKS Lodz.
The winger signed a contract with the bottom of the Polish league until the summer of 2025 with an option for another season. In the autumn, the promoted team only scored ten points in 18 games, and the gap to a non-relegation place is already nine points. “We believe he will be a significant reinforcement,” said LKS Lodz sports director Janusz Dziedzic.
An international match in November 2000
Balic came to LASK from St. Pölten in January 2020 and decided against Rapid’s offer at the time. In November 2020, then team boss Franco Foda brought him into the ÖFB team for the first and only time – against Luxembourg (3-0).
The Linz native played in a total of 122 competitive games for LASK, scoring 22 goals and preparing twelve more. In the fall of the 2022/23 season, the then coach Dietmar Kühbauer only used him five times as a joker, and he mostly didn’t make it into the squad. When he was loaned to Altach in the spring, he picked up the pace again as a regular player, but at LASK he wasn’t in demand under Kühbauer’s successor Sageder either.
Balic’s contract would have expired in the summer, but his farewell took place six months earlier. “We have found a good solution for Husein and LASK,” explained sports director Radovan Vujanovic, who thanked Balic for his use in the LASK jersey over the past three years: “He has always behaved in an exemplary manner.”
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Author
Günther Mayrhofer
Sports editor
Günther Mayrhofer
