West Ham has confirmed that Hammer Sead Haksabanovic has joined Swedish club IFK Norrkoping on a permanent basis for an undisclosed fee. The Montenegro international spent the 2019 Allsvenskan season on loan with Norrkoping, having returned to the country of his birth in January last year.
Attacking midfielder Haksabanovic joined West Ham in summer 2017 from Halmstads BK for a transfer fee reported to be £2.7m and made his debut in an EFL Cup win over Bolton Wanderers in September of that year. A second and final appearance in Claret and Blue came in January 2018, in an FA Cup tie against Shrewsbury Town.
The 21-year-old was loaned to Spanish club Malaga in summer 2018, before returning to Sweden with Norrkoping, for whom he made 36 appearances in all competitions last season.
Hakabanovic had two years remaining on his contract but the permanent move will save over £1.5m in wages.
Last month it had been reported by Futboll Direkt that West Ham turned down a £5m offer as well as claiming he was being scouted by Manchester United, Arsenal, Parma, Stuttgart, Milan, Ghent, Glasgow Rangers, Freiburg, Iceland’s national team (Erik Hamrén), Antwerp, Rapid Vienna, Benfica, Utrecht, Ajax, Groningen, Zwolle, Holstein Kiel and Fehervar according to Swedish website fotbollskanalen