Croatian striker was close to joining Benfica: “They asked me to …..

By Samuel On Dec 26, 2025

Toni Fruk explains that the move depended on the club qualifying for the Champions League or the Europa League.

Toni Fruk, a 24=year=old Croatian international, confirmed that he was close to joining Benfica last summer. It depended on whether the club qualified for the Champions League or the Europa League, the Rijeka forward told the Croatian newspaper Dnevnik.

It was a strange situation. The coach told me to wait for the game, to see how it went. Everything would depend on the budget that (Benfica) had to sign players,” explained Fruk, who even joked with his national teammate and Benfica player, Franjo Ivanovic, about the subject.

I told him: ‘They had to move on, they could have let it pass…’. But it will be as it has to be, as it has been until now,” he said.

Elected the best player of the year in the Croatian League, Toni Fruk is one of the key figures for the champion Rijeka, where his teammate is the Portuguese player Tiago Dantas.

Croatian striker was close to joining Benfica