Birmingham City dropped over £6m on Champions League player but it did not live up to the billing | OneFootball

Birmingham City paid a hefty transfer fee for Ivan Sunjic but he failed to live up that at St Andrew's

The summer of 2024 brought down the curtain on Ivan Sunjic's time as a Birmingham City player, and while he certainly wasn't poor, Blues supporters will feel that they didn't see enough from him to justify the transfer fee.

It looked like a real statement of intent in 2019 when Blues forked out a fee of £6.3million to sign the Croatian international from Dinamo Zagreb, with the midfielder having played in the Champions League and being a full international for a side that had reached the World Cup final just 12 months earlier.

He'd also captained the Croatian Under-21 side at the European Championships in 2019, and given his credentials, he looked like someone who could become a star for Blues in the years that followed.

However, he never really justified the hefty £6.3million price-tag, which was one of the biggest transfer fees Birmingham City had ever paid at the time, and while there was the odd glimpse of brilliance, he couldn't do it on a consistent enough basis.

Ivan Sunjic didn't live up to his £6.3million price-tag

In his homeland, Sunjic had been part of a Dinamo Zagreb side that had won the Croatian League in 2019, and he'd also represented them in Europe too, doing enough to earn a call-up to the senior national side in 2017, winning one cap against Mexico, which was to be his only Croatia cap.

Given the reputation he'd begun to establish in his homeland, it looked a real coup for a club like Birmingham City to sign him, and the hefty transfer fee suggested that Sunjic was a player who'd come in and make a real difference to the club after too many seasons of lingering in lower mid-table.

However, the midfielder left on a free transfer in the summer of 2024 having been part of a Blues side relegated to League One for the first time in 30 years, so it's fair to say that he didn't have the desired impact at St Andrew's.

He became one of the first names on the teamsheet during his first season at the club, and while he didn't perform badly and showed moments of brilliance, it wasn't enough to justify the price-tag, and there was more of that to come in the seasons that followed.

Sunjic played regularly for Blues during his first three seasons at the club, but he was loaned to German outfit Hertha Berlin for the 2022/23 season, with the club looking to trim their wage bill.

That looked like it may be the end of his time as a Birmingham City player, but he returned for the fateful 23/24 campaign, playing 36 Championship games as Blues finished 22nd and suffered relegation to League One.

Sunjic was not offered a new deal after relegation, and this summer felt like the right time to part ways after a move that ultimately didn't live up to expectations.

The one-time Croatian international made 173 appearances in total for Birmingham, but given the £6.3million they paid for him, Blues will feel short-changed by Sunjic's contributions.

Birmingham City supporters might be surprised at where Ivan Sujic is currently playing

Sunjic is currently plying his trade for Cypriot outfit Pafos FC, a bit of a fall from grace considering he was on loan in the Bundesliga just two seasons ago, although it has offered him the chance to play in the Europa Conference League.

It's allowed the 28-year-old to make a fresh start away from English football, and it's not just at club level where Sunjic has made a change either.

Despite winning a senior cap for Croatia back in 2017, Sunjic has switched allegiance to Bosnia & Herzegovina, and he made his debut for the country of his birth in the Nations League fixtures in November 2024.

His debut couldn't have gone much worse as his side lost 7-0 to Germany, although they did come away with some credit after drawing with the Netherlands three days later.