To say that Palermo’s attacking midfield star Josip Ilicic has had a rapid rise to fame would be an understatement. Only back in July, he was playing in the Slovenian second division for Interblock Ljubljana. He had previously played for second division team SC Bonifika and transferred to Interblock at the age of 19 for the start of the 2008/09 season when the team were still in Slovenia’s top league. After two seasons and relegation in his final year with Interblock, top division side NK Maribor signed Ilicic for a mere 80,000 euros back in July 2010.

The young midfielder was thrust straight into the limelight as he started life at Maribor in the first eleven for the Slovenian’s side Europa League campaign. In July, Maribor faced Hibernian in the European competition and Ilicic scored twice in the two legged affair which sent the Slovenian team into the next round to face Italian club Palermo. According to the Guardian, this was when Ilicic’s agent Armir Ruznic began to tout his young star around Europe once again despite only being at Maribor for the best part of a month.

He sent out DVDs to various top European clubs and coincidentally, one of the most impressed by the player’s ability was Palermo’s Sporting Director Walter Sabatini. He was said to be so taken by the player that he asked his club to move for midfielder even before Maribor and Palermo faced each other in the Europa League qualifying round. Despite Palermo being comfortably through to the group stages, Ilicic scored against the Italian club in the return leg which saw Maribor run out 3-2 winners. A day after the match though, it was announced that Ilicic, along with his team-mate Armin Bacinovic, had been transferred to Palermo. It is believed that Ilicic cost Palermo €2.2million, a tidy sum for Maribor who had only recently bought him for €80k.