Rangers FC have tabled an opening bid of roughly £4 million, or about €4.5 million, for Partizan Belgrade’s young captain Vanja Dragojevic. Partizan, unsurprisingly, wants more.

The Serbian club is reportedly holding out for approximately €5.5 million plus performance-related bonuses for the 20-year-old defensive midfielder. That gap between offer and asking price, roughly €1 million before add-ons, is the kind of distance that either kills a deal or gets bridged in the final hours of negotiation.

A rising talent with a long contract

Dragojevic, born January 11, 2006, in Belgrade, has emerged as one of the more promising young midfielders in Serbian football. He came through Partizan’s youth academy and made his senior debut during the 2024/25 season.

Since then, he has accumulated around 44 senior appearances for the club. That’s a notable workload for a player who only turned 20 earlier this year.

Partizan clearly recognized his trajectory. The club locked Dragojevic into a contract extension in May 2025, keeping him tied to the club until June 30, 2030. That deal includes a €15 million release clause, which gives you a sense of how Partizan values their captain internally.

His current market value sits somewhere between €7.5 million and €8 million, according to estimates. Rangers’ opening bid of €4.5 million, then, represents roughly 56-60% of that estimated valuation.

Partizan holds almost all the leverage. Four years remaining on a contract, a release clause more than three times what Rangers offered, and a player who is captaining his boyhood club at age 20. There’s no urgency to sell.

What Rangers are trying to buy

Dragojevic operates as a defensive midfielder. He stands 184 cm tall, is right-footed, and was appointed to the vice-captaincy in 2025 following the departures of senior players.

The math that matters for both sides

Look at the numbers from Partizan’s perspective. They extended Dragojevic’s contract barely a year ago, specifically to protect their asset. His release clause sits at €15 million. His market value is estimated near €8 million. Accepting €4.5 million, less than a third of the release clause and barely half of estimated market value, would be poor business by any standard.

The €5.5 million plus add-ons demand makes more sense when viewed against those benchmarks. With performance bonuses, the total package could push closer to €6-7 million, which starts approaching fair market territory while still leaving Partizan selling below estimated value.

The contract length works against Rangers in negotiations. When a player has four years left on his deal, there’s no “sell now or lose him for free” pressure that clubs typically use to drive prices down.

Negotiations were ongoing as of early July 2026, with reports from Serbian outlet Mozzart Sport among those tracking the situation.