\u201cThis is a big day for me, for my family and I\u2019m happy to be here,” Bijol said, speaking to LUTV<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe the biggest [challenge] one of my career so far, but I’m ready for it.<\/p>\n \u201cI work for it and that’s why I’m here, because it’s a big challenge for everyone. It’s a big challenge for me, for the club, and we’re getting ready for it together. I think the club and myself are ready for the Premier League.”<\/p>\n Bijol becomes only the second Slovenian to play for Leeds<\/a> after midfielder Zan Benedicic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bijol\u2019s career so far<\/p>\n Born in Vuzenica, Slovenia, Bijol began his youth career at NK Dravograd before moving to NK Bravo\u2019s academy in 2014.<\/p>\n He signed his first professional contract with Rudar Velenje in the summer of 2017, quickly establishing himself as a regular starter in a defensive midfield role during the 2017\/18 season.<\/p>\n Bijol moved to CSKA Moscow in June 2018, but was loaned to German side Hannover 96 for the 2020\/21 season.<\/p>\n He then signed a five-year contract with Serie A club Udinese, where he played a central defensive role and became a key figure in the Italian side\u2019s backline.<\/p>\n Indeed, over the last three seasons, only four centre-backs across Europe’s “big five” leagues have won a higher percentage of their aerial duels than the 69 per cent of Bijol – Virgil van Dijk<\/a>, Nikola Milenkovic<\/a>, Rasmus Nicolaisen and James Tarkowski<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bijol has represented Slovenia at every youth level and made his senior international debut on 13 October 2018 in a UEFA Nations League match against Norway.<\/p>\n He was also a member of Slovenia\u2019s 26-man squad for UEFA Euro 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United have completed the signing of Slovenia international defender Jaka Bijol from Italian club Udinese. The 26-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,661,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-209224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-text","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114735978029856620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jaka](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jaka-Bijol-aerial-duels-since-22-23.jpg\")
<\/p>\n