Birmingham City once signed the 'Croatian Messi' - now he's clubless at 30 | OneFootball

Alen Halilovic's career failed to take off after extremely high verdicts as a youngster

In recent times, Birmingham City have parted with some sizeable transfer fees to attract star names to St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

It has been well-documented that American investment group, Knighthead Capital Management, have lofty ambitions for a return to the Premier League sooner rather than later, which has seen optimism levels massively increase in this part of the West Midlands.

This comes after Birmingham endured years of stagnation following their last fall from the Premier League into the Championship in 2011, as several bottom-half finishes were recorded.

During this period, plenty of managers came and went in B9, whilst supporters continued to grow disillusioned with the way in which the club was run.

There were some players who were able to light up the stage in the Second City, though, but one of those was not Croatian midfielder, Alen Halilovic, who featured for the club in the 2020/21 season.

Alen Halilovic was compared to Lionel Messi after 2014, FC Barcelona transfer agreement

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Back in April 2014, it seemed Barcelona had sourced their latest young prodigy when it was confirmed that Halilovic would officially sign fo after progressing through Dinamo Zagreb's youth ranks, whilst also starring at national level for Croatia's youth sides.

With the Catalan side used to seeing imported talents such as Lionel Messi excel in the infancy of their spells at the Nou Camp, before going on to become, arguably, the greatest player of all time, high comparisons were drawn between the Argentine and Halilovic by Dinamo's sporting director, Zoran Mamic.

"I'm fully aware of how pretentious this may sound," Mamic stated in 2012. "But he's a Messi-type player if there ever was one."

'Croatian Messi' Alen Halilovic ended up at Birmingham City in 2020

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Unfortunately for Halilovic, as Croatia eventually rose to become a strong force in the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups whilst also remaining competitive in the UEFA European Championships, he would never get the chance to continue his visioned upwards trajectory.

Despite making 29 appearances for Barcelona B, the playmaker would only make one senior appearance for the La Liga giants, who even went on to win the UEFA Champions League in his first season at the club.

In 2018, AC Milan hoped they would be the club to resurrect the Croat's once-promising career, but that also failed to be the case as, in a two-year spell at the San Siro, Halilovic failed to make a single appearance before being released two years into an initial three-year contract.

This eventually led Halilovic to St. Andrew's, where he signed an initial short-term contract in November 2020 in the final months of Aitor Karanka's short-lived tenure.

Alen Halilovic struggled in two EFL Championship spells after Barcelona, AC Milan woes

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Halilovic eventually made his debut for Birmingham with an 18-minute substitute cameo against Bristol City in December 2020 - a game which Karanka's side emerged 1-0 victors from.

However, in a similar fate to the earlier spells of his career, he was unable to stake a claim for a guaranteed spot in the starting lineup, whilst his time in the West Midlands also coincided with Lee Bowyer replacing Karanka in 2021, although he did net once in his 17-game stint against Queens Park Rangers at St. Andrew's.

With the bulk of his appearances coming under Bowyer, it was hoped that Halilovic would accept a fresh contract offer heading into 2021/22, but that was not the case as he joined Reading on a free transfer under Veljko Paunovic.

Again, though, Royals fans would not see the best of the youth international's talent as injuries limited him to just 14 appearances - all of which came prior to January 2022, although he did net the winner against Middlesbrough in September 2021.

Alen Halilovic is now a free agent in 2026/27

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Since leaving the Championship, Halilovic hasn't exactly settled since then, as he joined HNK Rijeka in the summer of 2022, which was his first spell in Croatia since leaving Dinamo for Barcelona, with the club managed by Hull City head coach, Sergej Jakirovic, at the time.

However, after a further 11 appearances and just a solitary goal, the 10-cap international was released, and he went on to sign for Fortuna Sittard.

After extremely short spells with Birmingham, Reading and Rijeka, Halilovic was able to register 67 appearances for the Dutch side, where he also scored seven times and produced as many assists.