{"id":571868,"date":"2020-11-11T06:28:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T11:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=571868"},"modified":"2020-11-11T14:24:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T19:24:06","slug":"report-mandzukic-close-to-celta-vigo-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/11\/11\/report-mandzukic-close-to-celta-vigo-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Mario Mand\u017euki\u0107 Close to Celta Vigo Switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mundodeportivo.com\/futbol\/fichajes\/mercado-fichajes\/20201110\/49391980983\/mandzukic-celta-fichaje.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reports in Spain<\/a> say that former Croatia striker <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/afa0d4e0\/Mario-Mandzukic\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mario Mand\u017euki\u0107<\/a> is on the verge of joining La Liga side, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/f25da7fb\/Celta-Vigo-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Celta Vigo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Mario Mand\u017euki\u0107 Closing in on Celta Vigo Switch<\/h2>\n<h3>Mand\u017euki\u0107 Set for European Return?<\/h3>\n<p>Mand\u017euki\u0107 is a free agent having left Al-Duhail in Qatar back in July. He made just five appearances for the club following his switch from Italian giants <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/squads\/e0652b02\/Juventus-Stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juventus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarioMandzukic9\/status\/1279770729823612928]\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">On his Twitter account, the striker wrote<\/a>: \u201cI reached an agreement with Al-Duhail Sports Club management to terminate my contract by mutual consent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I appreciate the trust and hospitality that I have received in Qatar and I wish the best to the club and the team in the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I reached an agreement with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DuhailSC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@duhailsc<\/a> management to terminate my contract by mutual consent. I appreciate the trust and hospitality that I have received in Qatar and I wish the best to the club and the team in the future. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/mm17?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#mm17<\/a>\ud83c\udf2a <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DrJ2yBxp7V\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/DrJ2yBxp7V<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mario Mand\u017euki\u0107 MM17 (@MarioMandzukic9) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarioMandzukic9\/status\/1279770729823612928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 5, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old now appears to be keen on a move back to Europe and Celta Vigo look to be leading the race for a striker that netted 33 times in 89 games for his country.<\/p>\n<h3>Celta Vigo Struggles<\/h3>\n<p>After a few years challenging near the top of the Spanish league, the club endured a torrid 2019\/20 season where they finished 17th.<\/p>\n<p>Following a disappointing start to the season, which included a 4-1 home defeat to Real Sociedad, the club sacked manager\u00a0Fran Escriba and replaced him with <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/ae93cd06\/Oscar\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00d3scar Garc\u00eda Junyent<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Goalscoring Woes<\/h3>\n<p>The Galician club have scored the joint-lowest number of goals in La Liga this season (six) and will hope that the vastly experienced Croatian will transform their attacking line<\/p>\n<p>Mand\u017euki\u0107 is no stranger to playing in Spain either and netted 12 times in 28 appearances for Atl\u00e9tico Madrid following a move from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/bayern-munich\/\" target=\"_self\">Bayern Munich.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If he does sign, the striker will be competing with former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/manchester-city\/\" target=\"_self\">Manchester City<\/a> man <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/b2d0ec1b\/Nolito\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nolito<\/a>, former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/liverpool\/\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool<\/a> attacker <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/7dcf86f6\/Iago-Aspas\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Iago Aspas,<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/0b90bb97\/Santi-Mina\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santi Mina<\/a> to lead the line for the club.<\/p>\n<p>Celta Vigo will be hoping that Mandzukic recaptures the form that has seen him score 138 goals in his domestic career for some of Europe&#8217;s biggest clubs.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"GVHrLhv0QHJ0tFIEfkR3dw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1206019374\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'GVHrLhv0QHJ0tFIEfkR3dw',sig:'6b-KGwkyFo0bkVbcIE0wAN94Gbku-qpPExf4MU89ous=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1206019374',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reports in Spain say that former Croatia striker Mario Mand\u017euki\u0107 is on the verge of joining La Liga side, Celta Vigo. Mario Mand\u017euki\u0107 Closing in on Celta Vigo Switch Mand\u017euki\u0107 Set for European Return? Mand\u017euki\u0107 is a free agent having left Al-Duhail in Qatar back in July. He made just five appearances for the club [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3400,"featured_media":571958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"300","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,30],"tags":[53,1119,323,142,791,37,136],"class_list":["post-571868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-liga","category-news","tag-bayern-munich","tag-celta-vigo","tag-juventus","tag-la-liga","tag-mario-mandzukic","tag-transfers","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}