Inter have confirmed the signing of Aleksandar Stankovic from Club Brugge, activating a buyback clause worth €23m to bring the 21-year-old midfielder back to the San Siro. The move was announced on 5 June 2026, with Stankovic signing a five-year contract running until 30 June 2031.
The fee itself tells the story of a carefully engineered piece of business. Inter sold Stankovic to Club Brugge in the summer of 2024 for around €10m, but inserted a tiered buyback option into the deal: €23m if they triggered it in 2026, rising to €25m if they waited until 2027. With the player's stock rising fast, Inter moved this summer to bring him home at the cheaper price.
The timing was no accident. Reports in Italy suggested Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and several Premier League clubs had shown concrete interest in Stankovic, and Inter were determined not to lose a player they still held rights over. Manager Cristian Chivu, who worked with Stankovic during his time developing Inter's younger players, is understood to rate him highly and pushed for the deal to happen quickly rather than risk him signing fresh terms in Belgium or moving elsewhere.
For Club Brugge, it is a significant loss. Stankovic had established himself as a regular starter in central midfield, making 39 appearances in all competitions in 2025-26, 34 of them from the start, and contributing six goals and two assists — a notable return for a holding midfielder. He was a key part of a Brugge side that reached the Champions League proper and was in the mix at the top of the Belgian Pro League table into the closing weeks of the season.
That form followed a developmental season on loan at Swiss side Lucerne in 2024-25, where he played 38 times and began adding goals and assists to his game. The jump from squad rotation option to first-choice starter and now a permanent Inter player again shows how much his stock has grown in two years away from Italy.
At Inter, Stankovic returns to a midfield being reshaped around Hakan Calhanoglu, who has had recurring fitness issues, and the incoming Manu Kone from Roma. Chivu is expected to give Stankovic a genuine chance to compete for minutes immediately rather than easing him in gradually, given his athleticism, ball-carrying and the goalscoring instinct he showed at Brugge. His versatility — comfortable as a deeper-lying midfielder or with license to push forward — makes him a useful option in a squad now blending Inter's own academy products with more experienced heads.