Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s move to Manchester United did not happen quickly. It was the end result of a relationship that began in his teenage years, long before he had even made a senior appearance in Slovenian soccer.<\/p>\n
His path took shape in stages. In 2019, \u0160e\u0161ko joined RB Salzburg, then spent two years at FC Liefering, the Red Bull club\u2019s sister side, where he continued his development before becoming established with the league champions. Manchester United showed interest again during that spell in Austria, but the striker preferred to take another step first rather than leap straight into English football.<\/p>\n
Explaining that decision to The Athletic a year after arriving at Old Trafford in 2025, \u0160e\u0161ko said: \u201cIt was just the moment that we decided, because I think it was important,\u201d \u0160e\u0161ko told The Athletic a year on from belatedly leaving RB Leipzig to arrive at Old Trafford in 2025. \u201cIt would be a little bit too huge of a step for me to jump from Austria, from Slovenia directly to Manchester United, so I just needed those steps to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
That caution fits the scale of the challenge. Slovenia\u2019s top division ranks 58th in the world in Opta\u2019s statistical comparison of international leagues, so \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s steady climb made more sense than an immediate move to Manchester United.<\/p>\n
The Austrian Bundesliga gave him a manageable next step, while a later switch to Germany raised the level of opposition without demanding a complete change in style. Even so, his first months at United were not straightforward. He scored only two goals before the turn of the year, but has since found form under Michael Carrick.<\/p>\n
When the transfer finally became possible, \u0160e\u0161ko was prepared to make concessions to get it done. With Arsenal and Newcastle United also interested, his agent Elvis Ba\u0161anovi\u0107 said the player\u2019s focus never shifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time a deal doesn\u2019t go through, there are many different factors involved,\u201d Ba\u0161anovi\u0107 mused last year . \u201cI think it was also important that Benjamin\u2019s desire has always been Manchester United. Because of that, he was willing to accept a slightly lower salary and I also accepted a lower commission. Simply put, it was the player\u2019s dream. We are overjoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s move to United followed years of careful steps, patience, and sacrifice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,2028],"tags":[180,182],"class_list":["post-19383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-manchester-united-transfer-news","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}