Stefan Bajcetic hasn’t played a competitive match since May 2025.
The hamstring tendon injury he suffered at Las Palmas needed surgery, and fifteen months later he still hasn’t been given full medical clearance, having only recently returned to normal training.
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Liverpool’s first team hasn’t seen him since 2024.
That’s the player at the centre of one of the odder deals of deadline week.
According to Diego Otero, Liverpool and Celta Vigo have now agreed everything.
Celta will pay €1.5m plus add-ons, Bajcetic signs a three-year contract, he’ll initially be registered with Celta Fortuna in the second division, and Liverpool keep a buy-back option.
Matteo Moretto had earlier reported on the deal, that it was built on bonuses and a percentage of any future sale, so the small print is worth watching once it’s official.
Liverpool paid around €250,000 for him in December 2020, when he was a 16-year-old from A Madroa who’d never played for Celta’s first team.
He made his senior debut at 17 in the 9-0 win over Bournemouth in August 2022, finished with 22 appearances and a goal, and won a Liverpool player of the month award under Jurgen Klopp before his body stopped cooperating.
The loan trail tells the rest.
Nineteen games at Red Bull Salzburg in the first half of 2024-25, then 14 La Liga appearances and a goal at Las Palmas, who went down.
Then the operation, then the wait.
Celta spent most of this window trying to get him for nothing.
Their plan was to have him terminate the final year of his Anfield deal, which runs to June 2027, and sign as a free agent.
Liverpool moved the price up to between €1.5m and €2m late in the negotiation, which forced Marco Garcés to rework the numbers rather than walk away.
Claudio Giráldez, who coached Bajcetic in the academy, had been asking about him for more than a year and said publicly that an agreement would suit everyone.
Fredi Álvarez, the Fortuna coach, was blunter about why: they need a central midfielder and think Bajcetic is one.
Putting a player with 22 Liverpool appearances into a reserve side reads strangely until you remember he’s spent over a year not playing football at all.
The Segunda gives him minutes without the exposure, and the intention is that he joins the first team next season.
For Liverpool, this was tidy-up business. Curtis Jones went to Inter for £30m, Trey Nyoni is the one they want in that space, and there was no route into Andoni Iraola’s midfield.
The buy-back is the part that matters.
If the hamstring holds and the 21-year-old rebuilds himself in Galicia, they’ve kept the right to buy back a player they’re selling for roughly the price of a squad number.
‼️Acuerdo cerrado entre Liverpool y Celta por Stefan Bajcetic.
1,5M + objetivos pagará el Celta.
El jugador firmará por 3 temporadas y comenzará en el Fortuna.
El Liverpool se guarda una opción de recompra. pic.twitter.com/EuEbB8HIks
— Diego Otero (@diegootero22_) August 30, 2026
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