Rangers Push to Land Vanja Dragojevic: Inside the Talks for Partizan’s Captain

Rangers’ summer rebuild under Derek McInnes continues to gather pace, and one of the most significant pieces of that puzzle remains a move for Partizan Belgrade’s captain, Vanja Dragojevic. According to Football Insider, talks between the two clubs are ongoing, with Rangers understood to hold considerable interest in the 20-year-old midfielder as they push to get a deal over the line before the transfer window closes.

The situation, as things stand, is a fairly classic negotiation stand-off over price rather than any fundamental disagreement about whether a deal should happen. Rangers’ opening offer of around £3.9 million was rejected by Partizan, who are instead holding out for a fee closer to the £5 million mark for their captain. Football Insider’s sources suggest that if Rangers can move their next bid up to something in that region, it’s likely to be enough to secure Partizan’s agreement and get the transfer done.

That gap — while not enormous in absolute terms — has been enough to keep the two clubs talking rather than shaking hands. Other reporting on the pursuit has offered slightly different numbers depending on the outlet and the point in the negotiation being described, but the broad shape of the story has remained consistent across the Serbian and Scottish press: Rangers have opened with a bid in the £3.8 million to £4 million bracket, while Partizan’s asking price sits somewhere between £4.5 million and £4.7 million, sometimes described as around €4.5 million when quoted in euros. Whatever the exact figures at any given moment, the direction of travel has been the same — Rangers edging their offer upward, and Partizan showing genuine willingness to sell once their valuation is met.

Dragojevic already has two senior caps for Serbia to his name, underlining that this isn’t merely a domestic prospect but a player with a growing international profile as well as a proven club record. Primarily deployed as a holding midfielder, he made 41 appearances for Partizan in all competitions last season, contributing four goals and three assists — solid numbers for a player whose principal job is sitting in front of the back four rather than getting into the opposition box.

For Derek McInnes, strengthening the centre of midfield has clearly been a priority this summer, and Dragojevic has been earmarked as a player who suits both the immediate needs of the squad and the longer-term direction McInnes wants to take the club in. Football Insider’s reporting describes Rangers as viewing the midfielder as someone who “ticks a lot of boxes” — a phrase that speaks to more than just his ability on the ball. His age is a significant part of the appeal: at 20, with what’s seen as considerable room still to develop, Dragojevic represents exactly the kind of asset a recruitment department likes to build around, both for what he can offer on the pitch now and for what he might be worth if his stock continues to rise.

That resale-value angle has been an explicit part of Rangers’ thinking, according to the report, with the recruitment team viewing him as a player who could hold significant future worth even beyond his contribution to the team in the years immediately ahead. It’s the kind of profile that modern recruitment departments across Europe increasingly prioritise: young, technically capable, tactically disciplined players who can be developed and, if necessary, sold on for a healthy profit down the line.

Other reporting fills out the picture of exactly why Rangers see him as such a strong fit. He’s been described as an aggressive, tenacious presence in the middle of the park, someone who excels at disrupting opposition play and recycling possession efficiently once he wins the ball back. His physical attributes have also been highlighted — a six-foot frame that allows him to shield the ball well and put his body on the line, combined with strong positional sense that makes him effective at cutting off passing lanes. The suggestion from some outlets covering the pursuit is that while Rangers already have options in defensive midfield, they currently lack someone who can dominate that area of the pitch through sheer physical presence in the way Dragojevic is capable of — which may explain why McInnes has pushed to prioritise this particular deal above other midfield targets.

Dragojevic’s rise at Partizan has been rapid by any standard. Born on January 11, 2006, he spent time out on loan with Partizan’s affiliate club Teleoptik during the 2024-25 campaign before being recalled to the first team by then-manager Srdan Blagojevic in the second half of that season. He made his senior debut for Partizan in March 2025 and quickly established himself as a regular starter, earning praise from Serbian media for his composure and performances well beyond his years.

The scale of his development is best illustrated by the captaincy itself. Dragojevic was handed the vice-captaincy at Partizan only a matter of months after making his professional debut for the club — an extraordinarily fast elevation for a player barely out of his teens, and a clear indication of how highly he’s regarded internally, both for his footballing qualities and for the maturity he’s shown off the pitch. By the 2025-26 season, he was wearing the armband regularly, registering three goals and three assists across 31 Serbian SuperLiga appearances while leading the side.

Dragojevic himself has spoken about what leadership means to him in the specific context of Partizan’s demanding football culture. Discussing the responsibility of captaining the side, he described the club’s badge as one that demands total effort on the pitch and stressed that leadership isn’t about outward appearances but about ensuring the player alongside him never lets his intensity drop, even for a moment. It’s a description that fits neatly with how Rangers and outlets covering the deal have characterised him: a “modern leader” in a genuinely young player’s body, someone whose maturity on matters of responsibility outpaces his relatively limited experience at senior level.

His rise to prominence hasn’t stopped at club level either. Dragojevic made his senior international debut for Serbia last month, coming on as a late substitute in a 3-0 friendly defeat to Cape Verde. He wasted little time cementing his place in the squad from there, earning his first international start shortly afterwards when he was included in Dragan Stojkovic’s starting line-up for a fixture against Mexico played at the Estadio Nemesio Díez in Toluca. Two caps in quick succession, including a start against a nation of Mexico’s standing, only adds to the sense that Dragojevic’s stock is rising fast on multiple fronts simultaneously — exactly the kind of momentum that tends to sharpen competition among interested clubs.

Perhaps the clearest indication that a transfer is genuinely progressing has come not from any official statement, but from the extraordinary lengths Partizan have reportedly gone to in order to protect their captain from injury while negotiations continue. According to Serbian outlet Telegraf, Dragojevic has been placed on what’s been described as a “special regime” during training, effectively operating in a non-contact, reduced-risk role during tactical drills specifically to eliminate any chance of a training-ground injury derailing a lucrative sale.

That caution reportedly escalated further around a pre-season friendly against Azerbaijani side Neftçi Baku, with Partizan’s coaching staff and head coach Saša Ilić ultimately deciding to withdraw Dragojevic from the matchday squad entirely rather than simply limiting his minutes. Given that he’s the club’s captain, his absence has forced the coaching staff to select a stand-in to wear the armband in his place, with Milan Roganović and Milan Vukotić reportedly the leading candidates for that responsibility. Clubs don’t typically pull their captain from pre-season fixtures without good reason, and the read from Serbian media has been that this level of protective planning is a strong signal a formal agreement is edging closer to completion.

Notably, Dragojevic isn’t the only Partizan player being treated this way. The club has reportedly applied an identical approach to Ognjen Ugrešić, another player whose parallel transfer negotiations — in his case with an unnamed Serie A club — appear to be reaching a similarly advanced stage. That pattern suggests this isn’t an isolated case of caution around one specific deal, but part of a broader, deliberate strategy from Partizan to protect the value of players they expect to sell this summer.

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Partizan’s willingness to entertain a sale at all comes with useful context from the club’s own hierarchy. Sporting director Radosav Petrović has publicly acknowledged that the club is actively working on departures this summer, confirming there has been a submitted offer for Dragojevic specifically, even without naming Rangers directly in his comments. Petrović indicated that further concrete information was likely to emerge in the following days, language that reads as a club preparing its own supporters for an imminent departure rather than digging in defensively over a player it intends to keep.

That’s consistent with wider reporting suggesting Partizan are, in general terms, eager to cash in on some of their prized assets this summer. Rangers are reportedly aware of this financial motivation and have structured their approach accordingly — with some reports suggesting the Ibrox club are prepared to pay any agreed fee immediately in full, a detail that would be particularly attractive to a selling club known to be keen to bank transfer income quickly rather than negotiate instalment structures.

Underlining Partizan’s negotiating position, though, is the contract situation Dragojevic signed only relatively recently: an extension running through June 2030, reportedly including a release clause in the region of €15 million. That figure dwarfs anything currently being discussed between the two clubs, and it means Partizan are under no obligation to sell at anything close to Rangers’ current offer — they’re negotiating from a position of contractual security, not desperation, even while their broader financial situation may make a sale at a more modest fee an attractive outcome regardless.

Rangers are not operating in a vacuum. Dragojevic’s form and profile have drawn interest from considerably bigger clubs than Rangers over the course of this saga, with both Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund reportedly having monitored his situation at various points. Beşiktaş have also been credited with interest in some reporting. That level of attention from clubs of that stature speaks to how highly regarded Dragojevic’s ceiling is considered to be within the game, and it underscores why Rangers have been working with some urgency to get a deal agreed before any of those larger clubs decide to make a serious move of their own.

Dragojevic’s own camp, meanwhile, has been notably measured in its public comments throughout the process. His agent, former goalkeeper Bojan Saranov, addressed the state of negotiations directly, telling Rangers News that he would confirm if and when a deal was close, but that as things currently stood, that point hadn’t yet been reached. It’s a cautious, professional response that neither confirms nor denies the growing sense of momentum around the move — the kind of comment an experienced agent gives when a negotiation is live but not yet finalised, protecting his client’s position without shutting down a deal that is clearly some distance down the road already.

Dragojevic wouldn’t arrive into a midfield short of options. Rangers have already added Dan Neil on a free transfer from Sunderland this summer, and the current midfield pool at Ibrox includes Connor Barron, Nico Raskin, Mohamed Diomandé, Tochi Chukwuemeka, Lyall Cameron and José Cifuentes — though it’s understood some of those players are ticketed for departure as part of the wider squad reshaping under McInnes. Should the Dragojevic deal be completed, he would represent the sixth signing of what has already been a busy summer window for the Ibrox club, following the arrivals of Lawrence Shankland, Ross McCrorie, Ben Godfrey, Ivor Pandur and Neil.

Interestingly, reports have been at pains to stress that pursuing Dragojevic wouldn’t affect Rangers’ other midfield ambitions this summer. Separate coverage has suggested that any deal for the Serbian captain would not come at the expense of a potential move for Scotland and Bologna midfielder Lewis Ferguson, with McInnes said to be seeking additional reinforcements in that area of the pitch beyond the Neil signing alone. That would suggest McInnes and the Ibrox recruitment team see Dragojevic and Ferguson as fulfilling different roles or profiles within the midfield rebuild, rather than one being a direct alternative to the other.

The Dragojevic pursuit hasn’t unfolded in isolation from other significant business at Ibrox this summer. Football Insider also revealed last week that Rangers could be open to selling forward Thelo Aasgaard should a sufficiently strong offer arrive in the coming weeks. The 24-year-old Norway international has attracted high-profile interest from clubs across Europe in recent months, with Italian side Atalanta the latest club credited with interest in signing him.

Rangers, for their part, are reluctant to weaken their attacking options by losing Aasgaard, but reports suggest the club could be tempted into a sale if the financial terms on offer prove lucrative enough. Aasgaard’s first season at Ibrox brought seven goals and four assists in what’s been described as a difficult debut campaign north of the border, and there is evidently strong hope internally that he can make a considerably bigger impact in the 2026-27 season if he stays — a hope that would presumably only be abandoned in the event of an offer too significant to turn down.

Whether or not the Aasgaard situation ultimately connects financially to the Dragojevic pursuit is not something that’s been made explicit in reporting, but the timing of both stories emerging in the same window is a reminder of how interconnected a club’s transfer business tends to be during a single summer. Departures can fund arrivals, and a sale in one area of the pitch can effectively unlock the budget needed to complete a deal elsewhere.

For now, the Dragojevic deal remains unresolved but active, with both camps continuing discussions and the gap between valuation and offer narrow enough that many following the story expect it to be bridged eventually rather than collapse entirely. Partizan’s evident willingness to sell, combined with their captain’s own contractual security and the presence of bigger European clubs monitoring the situation, means Rangers are working against something of a clock even as negotiations continue in what appears to be good faith on both sides.

If Rangers do get the fee up to around the £5 million mark that Football Insider’s sources suggest would be enough to close the deal, Dragojevic would arrive at Ibrox as one of the most eye-catching additions of McInnes’s rebuilding summer — a captain-calibre young midfielder with genuine physical presence, growing international pedigree, and, by his own account, an attitude to leadership built on substance rather than image. Whether that translates into an immediate first-team fixture at Ibrox or a more gradual integration remains to be seen, but the profile Rangers are chasing is clear: a player they believe can anchor their midfield now and only increase in value as his career progresses.