HSV sign Petric

17 August 2008 19:33

Any English football fan will remember the 21st November 2007, when England's already slim Euro 2008 championship hopes were snuffed out by Croatia on a rainy night at the American Football Stadium in Wembley.

Well, the winning goal that night was scored by a little-known Dortmund player, Mladen Petric. (of course, he was well known in Croatia and Germany, but because he was not part of "The Worlds Greatest League" nobody in England had heard of him). Today HSV have signed him in a deal which sees Mohammed Zidan plus an undisclosed sum go in the other direction.

Its a deal which has been well signposted. Zidan has struggled to settle at HSV, never really getting a settled run in the team and so often the teams tactics didn't quite suit him. He had had his best years at Mainz playing under Jurgen Klopp. Meanwhile HSV were looking for another attacking option since the departure of Rafael Van Der Vaart. Now Klopp has moved to Dortmund and all the pieces of the jigsaw came together.

I will wish Zidan good luck in Dortmund. As I said, he never quite seemed sure of his role in the team and Huub Stevens did not get the best out of him, using him increasingly as a sub to make an impact late on. He did just that last season when he scored a late equaliser against Bayern Munich, but the successful days were just too few and far between. He became a more and more disjointed part of the team and it has been clear for some time that his future lies elsewhere.

But we welcome Petric, a Croat to partner Ivica Olic in the team. He mostly plays as an attacking midfielder and we hope that he has a few goals in his luggage to treat the fans at the Volkspark.