SV Darmstadt 98, who were promoted to the Bundesliga last season, have completed their first summer signing. Midfielder Mario Vrancic joins from SC Paderborn 07.
Replacement for Hanno Behrens
The 26-years old signed a two-year contract until June 2017.
Michael Born, SC Paderborn's sporting director, tried to keep Vrancic at the club but he desperately wanted to play for a club in the Bundesliga.
According to "kicker", Vrancic was allowed to leave Paderborn because of a relegation release clause of about €0.5m.
Vrancic was a key player in Paderborn's side last season and almost did enough to keep them in the division.
He'll need to perform at a similar level to the previous campaign, if Darmstadt are to have any chance of making their long-awaited return to the top flight more than a one season stint.
Darmstadt found an experienced player from the Bundesliga and is an almost instant replacement for the very important Hanno Behrens, who joined 1. FC Nürnberg earlier in the window.
Coach and player are happy about the transfer
Dirk Schuster, who is the successful manager of Darmstadt and led them through successive promotions in the third and second tierd, said that: "Mario is a technically good footballer, who showed brilliant performances last season for SC Paderborn."
He also added that, "Vrancic will help Darmstadt's offensive play with his individual quality."
The player himself is looking forward on the new challenge in Darmstadt and commented, "the progress of the club in the last two years impressed me a lot and I also had good talks with people in power. Everything went very fast and I'm happy to be with the 'Lilien'."
In his last season for SC Paderborn, he played 30 games in the Bundesliga, scoring two goals and assisting one.
With Florian Jungwirth, Mario Vrancic has an old companion. In 2008, both played for the Germany under-19s and became European champions in the Czech Republic.