Each and every summer the sports betting markets switch their attention from matches being played to transfers in the offering, with typically several clubs priced up for each player.
This time out, Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez featured prominently, with it being an open secret that the talented left-back was set to leave the Vitality Stadium after two seasons on the South Coast.
Liverpool – the club he would soon sign for, the fee totalling £40m – were strong favourites throughout.
Bought to challenge Andy Robertson, the move was a vindication of Kerkez’s consistent excellence in the Premier League, that year’s title winners swayed by the Hungarian international’s dynamic displays.
Yet the rest of the betting field is also worth noting. Manchester City were said to be keenly interested and priced up at short football odds accordingly. So too were Arsenal and Manchester United. Further afield, AC Milan were in the mix, as well as Bayern Munich.
Four years earlier, the player was turning out for Győr in the Hungarian second tier. Now he was one of the most wanted men in world football.
How much is Milos Kerkez worth?
Humble by nature and not one for extravagance, Kerkez has admirably refrained from cashing in on his elevated stature.
He is paid a nominal amount for wearing Nike Mercurial boots and, from an investment perspective, he has an interest in property, owning houses in Poole and Serbia.
This is not an individual though inclined to flog headphones or energy drinks. Factoring in his steep increase in wages and allowing for several years playing at a high level, Milos Kerkez’s net worth is estimated to be just north of £3m.
Salary
In 2024, the defender’s wage at Bournemouth rose from £25,000 a week to £30,000 but this still meant he was one of the lowest earners at the club, certainly among the first-team regulars.
Team-mates such as Marcos Senesi and Tyler Adams took home twice that figure while top of the pile Evanilson was lured to England by a £85,000 per week pay-out. Kerkez will now be in that bracket on Merseyside.
False start
It is however an impressive rise to the top that includes a false start. Finding himself on the radar of several clubs after just six months of left-backing for Győr, Kerkez was stunned to receive a call from footballing royalty Paolo Maldini at the tail-end of 2020.
Once pleasantries had been exchanged the legendary Italian urged teenager to sign for AC Milan, the club he will forever be associated with. How do you say no to that? You can’t, so Kerkez duly joined the Rossoneri, trained hard and tried to stand out.
Alas, it was not to be for the ambitious defender, failing to make a first team start in ten months on the Peninsula. Resilience was needed to get over that set-back, a quality Kerkez had to spare, growing up in a country that had recently experienced one of the most vicious wars of our time.
Born on November 7th, 2003, he spent his childhood perfecting the art of parkour across his hometown of Vrbas, scaling buildings and leaping from them. Aged 11 he joined Rapid Wien, uprooted 400 miles from his family and friends.
He stayed in Austria for five years, determined to make his dream of becoming a professional football a reality.
Post-Milan, Kerkez joined AZ and in the Eredivisie the youngster did make appearances, 33 of them all told, enough to grab the attention of Benfica who enquired about him in the summer of 2023.
It was Bournemouth though who beat them out, bidding an undisclosed fee that was enough to secure his services.
From Serbia, to Austria, to Hungary, then Italy and Holland, the defender had found his way to the Premier League. Remarkably, he was still a teen.
Bournemouth
Despite Kerkez being a highly energetic and competitive performer it took him a while to adapt to the intensity of English football.
Crucially, he gained the trust of his new manager Andoni Iraola quickly, putting in a series of decent displays in pre-season that secured him the left-back berth for the season to come.
By the campaign’s end though, despite making 28 league starts, many football fans beyond the Vitality would have struggled to pick him out in a line-up. That all changed the following year, when the player’s output went up an entire level.
Scoring twice and creating six assists as the Cherries threatened to snatch a shock Champions League place got him noticed in wider circles. Come May he was voted into the Premier League Fan Team of 2024/25.
Hungary
Not only was Kerkez born and raised in Serbia, it’s a place where he has subsequently built a house, returning there every chance he gets. Why then does he play his international football for Hungary?
Having paternal grandparents from there explains the administrative side of it while emotionally Kerkez was flattered when he was selected for Hungary’s under 17s while playing for Győr.
“They gave me a chance,” he has since explained, going on to make 23 outings for the Magyars.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
