, Former Leeds and Leyton Orient flop in Lega Pro swap

Former Leeds and Leyton Orient flop in Lega Pro swap

Žan Benedičič arrived at Elland Road, for his first foray into English football, to a fanfare of high expectation; he left without making hardly a dent.

The expectation came from his footballing pedigree, he was coming to Elland Road from the San Siro and AC Milan. He’d broken through into Milan’s Primavera or U-19 side, making 35 appearances and scoring six goals.

Much was expected of the young Slovenian attacking midfielder, and a loan move to Leeds United caught many fans a little aghast that an AC Milan youngster was bound for Elland Road. They needn’t have been aghast, nor even slightly curious as his ‘career’ as a Leeds fan consisted of just 36 minutes over two appearances.

The first appearance was in the then Capital One Cup with a 24 minute appearance against Accrington Stanley, before a 12 minute cameo in a 1-0 victory over Bolton in the Sky Bet Championship. A knee injury that required surgery ended his season at Elland Road after that, the Slovenian never again getting anywhere near the Leeds United squad.

He returned to AC Milan at the end of June 2015, with the Italian giants shipping him out a month later to Lega Pro side Como. Six months on from that he was at Serie B side Ascoli, where he made nine appearances before being let go, drifing into free agency.

He was picked up by Leyton Orient mid September last year for his second foray into English football. Like his first, it didn’t go well. Liking the number two, the once-rated Milan player made just the brace of appearances against Brighton U-23s in the EFL Trophy (81 minutes) and coming off the bench for a nine-minute League Two debut against Hartlepool United.

With it not working out in England for Benedičič, it was back to Italy and the Lega Pro – Italy’s third tier competiton – with Olbia Calcio

Olbia’s next match is in 10 days time against Pontedera where Benedičič will be hoping to make more of an impression than he did during his two stays in England.

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