Jakob Lilja signed a new contract in the KHL.
Now he wants to leave – but may be forced to pay millions.
– For me personally, this contract is worth more than what I can go in and buy myself out for, he says to HockeyNews.
Jakob Lilja has in Sweden played hockey for Djurgården, Linköping and Rögle, but he left Swedish ice hockey 2019 for games in the NHL. However, it was only one season in North America, and a total of 37 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Fixed with the Russian club
For the past two seasons, Lilja has played for Barys Nur-Sultan in the KHL, but earlier in the spring he signed a new contract with another Russian club – but then the war broke out. Now he is in a difficult situation, to say the least.
According to HockeyNews, Lilja has asked to break her contract, and will even be almost ready for games in the Swiss league next season. But something went wrong. The contract in the KHL was not broken, it is valid, and you do not want to let go of the Swede. Clubs in Switzerland are said to have tried to buy out the Swede from their contract, but without success.
His only option now is to buy himself out.
– For me personally, this contract is worth more than what I can go in and buy myself out for. That is if any club can do it and it has been a problem as well. Clubs, as far as I understand, have tried to negotiate something, but it has not worked out, he says to the site.
“It’s millions”
It would not be directly free for Lilja to buy out herself – and it is a complicated process.
– It is millions in that case. In any case, if you go on the percentage you have to pay yourself. Then you do not know what they have said for the sum to the interested clubs. I have not heard anything about that, he says.
Lilja says that there is great interest in both the SHL and Switzerland for him. But if he signs for another club before everything is ready, it can have enormous consequences.
– I think it is they (the Russian KHL club) who are on my transfer card. If I were to write elsewhere, I could be suspended for two years, I understand.
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