Third-league club Zeta gets 600 thousand from Krstović's transfer to Atalanta

Football club Zeta, the first Montenegrin champion and now a member of the last tier of domestic football, will earn from transfers Nikola Krstović from Lecce to Atalanta a little over six hundred thousand euros (around 625).

Krstović wore the jersey of the club from Trešnjica from 2011 (younger category) until 2019, when he moved to Crvena zvezda as a first-team player.

Belgrade media wrote yesterday that Red Star will receive just over half a million from Krstović's latest transfer - Zeta will get even more.

This is the UEFA Solidarity Fund, which was introduced by the International Football Federation to protect and satisfy smaller clubs, or all those who contributed to the formation of a player who then moved to another environment for compensation.

The "training compensation" rule was introduced a long time ago, according to which a player's home club is entitled to training compensation until the end of the season in which he turns 23: Zeta thus benefited from Krstović's transfer from Red Star to Dunajska Streda, and from Streda to Leće.

The Montenegrin international is now 25 years old, but Zeta is still entitled to compensation thanks to the "solidarity contributions" rule.

FIFA's calculation is complicated, it multiplies five percent of the transfer fee by the number of years spent at the club, with earlier (younger) years being worth less. A complicated calculation - but it clearly protects clubs according to the period of time spent at the club.

Krstović's transfer to Atalanta for 25 million euros from Lecce is one of the largest in the history of Montenegrin football in terms of compensation and is slightly smaller than the transfer Stevan Jovetić from Fiorentina to Manchester City in 2013.

Zeta sold Krstović to Red Star in 2019 for 250 thousand (plus 20 percent from the next transfer), according to Transfermarkt. The young Montenegrin international didn't find his feet in the red and white jersey at the time - or Red Star didn't recognize his potential, whatever, and sold him to Dunajska Streda for 400 thousand.

Krstović shone in Slovakia and Lecce brought him in for close to four million in 2023. What a move that was - it's become clear these days.

Overall, including the transfer to Red Star, FIFA training compensation and the Solidarity Fund, Zeta earned a total of nearly one million two hundred thousand (1,175 million) from Krstović's transfers.

Zeta has been playing in the Senior League of the FSCG - Centar Association of Clubs for two years now, last year they managed to reach the Second League, but due to match-fixing, they were returned to the third tier, together with Budva.