Champions League-chasing Sturm Graz have won the fight to land Max Johnston.
The ambitious Austrian side have now agreed a money-spinning four-year deal to sign the Scotland under-21 international. The 19-year-old is scheduled to fly out on Monday for his medical and then to put the finishing touches to his life-changing move. It looks to be a major coup for Sturm Graz who have fought off stiff competition from clubs in the English Premier League, Italy, Portugal, France and Belgium.
The Austria outfit have tabled a significant five figure weekly deal with signing on fees to land Scotland’s young player of the year. It is a massive upturn for the player who left Motherwell at the end of May on a few hundred pounds-a-week. Sturm Graz can also offer potential Champions League football because they are in the third qualifying round, where they could potentially be drawn against Rangers.
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The big thing for Johnston throughout, though, was that he wanted to continue playing first-team football and he will get that via European football and Austria's top-flight. The teenager could have gone to the EPL but would have been loaned out elsewhere but Graz made him a long-term target and have shown that by making him one of their top earners.
Sturm Graz have the financial muscle as they are set to sell Dutch striker Emanuel Emegha to Strasbourg for around £12 million. That is another added major factor for Johnston as he knows the Austrian league could offer a pathway into Europe’s other top leagues, like the Bundesliga and Ligue 1.
Motherwell will be due around £300,000 in training compensation, after his Fir Park contract expired. The Fir Park side let his contract run into the final months of his contract without addressing it before they sent him out on loan for his successful stint at Cove Rangers. Johnston had found his route to the first-team blocked and also had a loan at Queen of the South.
He returned under Stuart Kettlewell and his performances saw him named as the Scottish Football Writers’ Association’s young player of the year.
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