Why Bojan Miovski's Sale is Vital for Scottish Football
An deep-dive into the implications Bojan Miovskis transfer to Girona could have on Aberdeen and the rest of Scottish football.
- Sky Sports -
After 98 appearances and 44 league goals, Bojan Miovski is jetting off from north-east Scotland to sunny Spain. A record sale - 6.8 million pounds to be precise - was enough to convince Aberdeen to part ways with their star man to Girona.
After Artem Dovbyks departure to Roma for 28 million pounds, Girona have turned to Miovski and ex-Braga forward Abdel Ruiz to lead the line as MÃchel’s men embark on a champions league campaign for the first time.
While the fee for Miovski will help Aberdeen rebuild their squad, the North-Macedonians transfer has the potential to be game-changing on the perception of Scottish football as a market for the top 5 leagues to shop. Lets look at the potential deeper benefits this transfer could have on Scottish football.
Foreign imports work
This might feel like a redundant statement but it boggles my mind that Scottish clubs have only just started to clock on. The old firm - especially Celtic - have been doing this for years, buying young talent from smaller teams in the top flights of leagues like Belgium and Holland (Victor Wanyama and Virgil Van Dijk come to mind) and prospects from big European powerhouses - Jermie Frimgpong, Mousa Dembele, Odsonne Edouard and Jota. All these players have been sold on for at least double what Celtic payed for. It’s a profitable scheme that has kept Celtic at the top of Scottish football (that and they have 10x the budget of every side not named Rangers).
In recent years Aberdeen have piggy backed this model to great success, financially. On the pitch, Aberdeen have been about as turbulent as can be. Since 2021, Aberdeen began to look further abroad for signings, bringing American talents like 21 year-old Dante Polvara for free from Georgetown and 30-year-old Christian Ramirez from Houston for a cut price €227k. 20-year-old Vicente Besjuilen was also picked up from Ado Den Haag - who while barely playing for the Dons would still likely make profit from the €400k fee they payed. The next year, Bojan Miovski and Ylber Ramadani were signed from MTK Budapest for a combined €770k. Within 2 years the two have been flipped for a combined fee close to €8 million. Duk was also bought in for just shy €500k from Benfica who will likely be sold for double what he was bought for.
Its a smart cycle from Aberdeen that makes them the side that is the most profitable in Scotland since 2019/2020.
- data from Transfermarkt, does NOT INCLUDE MIOVSKI SALE -
It makes perfect sense that clubs like Hearts and Dundee United have begun to look further afield for young prospects. Scottish clubs need to embrace the trade of buying players from abroad and selling them for massive profit. Sure not every transfer will be perfect - that’s natural - but if you land a ‘Miovski type’ player and sell him for ten times you buy him for, you have essentially payed for the next five or six risks.
Miovski success matters
- Eurosport-
Ukrainian football - in my biased eyes at least - is of a similar level to Scottish football. So why is Ukrainians record sale nearly 50 million heftier than Scotlands? The answer is known quantity. Ukrainian football have produced some incredible talents - especially Brazilian - in recent years. From Fernandinho to Willian, Douglas Costa to Alex Teixeira. SO, when another talented Brazilian or a tricky winger comes through at Shaktar Donetsk, they come with a certain expectation of talent. Sure €60m for Fred and €70m+ add ons for Mudryk is insane and incompetent from Manchester United and Chelsea it shows that Ukrainian football is in the position to command such a fee due to the quality of exports they’ve previously shipped.
Bojan Miovski needs to be similar for Scottish football.
Let me explain. Obviously Scottish football has produced a-fore mentioned gems like Van Dijk. Well, actually, as TOP talent goes Van Dijk is it. Scottish football is extremely inconsistent when producing talent. For a number of reasons including pure refusal to play young talent and just, frankly, poor recruitment. Recently, Aberdeen have been beginning to offload talent for big profit on a regular basis, the likes of Calvin Ramsay, Scott Mckenna and Lewis Ferguson, but also foreign imports like Ramadni and now Miovski.
For Scottish football to progress as a market for top talent like Austria and Ukraine, they need to:
A. Find the young ‘top’ talent (easier said than done)
and
B. Said ‘top’ talent needs to play well at their new club (teams won’t keep coming if the produce is shite)
Imagine Miovski bags a reasonable - and plausible - 20 goals in all competitions, leads Girona to a top 7 finish and a play-off berth in the champions league. Firstly, fair play to Miovski a bigger move would definitely be on the cards, but do you not think clubs will sniff around what else Aberdeen and other Scottish clubs have to offer? The league fuels itself from its exports running the show in other leagues.
Italian Excellence
- BBC Sport -
Italian football has always been top notch when it comes to recruiting from smaller leagues and - in recent years - especially Scotland. Aaron Hickey, Josh Doig and Lewis Ferguson have all been picked up for peanuts by Serie A clubs and have been - or look imminent to be - sold on for big profit to the Premier league. Just like the market Ange saw in Asia or Aberdeen have found in eastern Europe, Italy saw the Scottish market as a place to buy talented young players for cheap, develop them into fantastic players and then sell them on. Due to being ahead of the curve, Italy invested early into the Scottish market and reaped the rewards.
With players like Miovski now going for a larger fee than ever (still too cheap for his quality), it shows that continued other leagues are beginning to take note of the quality in the SPFL, just like the Ukrainian league or the Austrian league, if these Scottish clubs are smart and their ex-players succeed abroad, Scottish clubs can begin to scale up prices more akin to the quality they have to offer.
Miovskis transfer to Girona is a move that could be crucial in Scotland’s continued growth as a go-to place for talent. The idea that a player outside of the old-firm could go and tear up LA Liga for a side that finished 3rd last season should fill Scottish football fans for hope. Aberdeens transfer philosophy is without a doubt the best in the league: as is their recruitment. To be able to even sniff a challenge against the leagues big two, other clubs need to take a note out of Aberdeen book - a trend thats already beginning to happen. With so much negativity surrounding Scottish football, the leagues influx of quality in recent years, moving away from the usual amalgamation of old firm rejects and league one stalwarts.
One can only hope this is a trend that continues.
JTB