{"id":705731,"date":"2026-07-22T19:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705731\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:06:13","slug":"transfer-news-introducingfilip-bilbija-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705731\/","title":{"rendered":"TRANSFER NEWS: Introducing\u2026Filip Bilbija &#8211; Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Filip Bilbija became Derby County\u2019s third summer signing ahead of the 2026\/27 season when he linked up with the squad during their overseas training camp in Austria.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FB_Web_2026signing (3).png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bilbija\u2019s move to the Rams is set to be his first experience of English football; the versatile attacking midfielder has spent the entirety of his career to date playing in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take a closer look at Derby\u2019s latest recruit\u2026<\/p>\n<p>In Profile<\/p>\n<p>Born in Berlin, Bilbija\u2019s parents are of Serbian and Montenegrin descent.<\/p>\n<p>Starting out in the German capital, he was on the books of Tennis Borussia Berlin before moving to Hertha Zehlendorf in summer 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Having impressed in youth teams in his home city, he caught the eye of FC Ingolstadt, who brought Bilbija into their Under-19s squad in 2018\/19, before promoting the attacking midfielder to the senior ranks the following season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2GF0TBM.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>He spent three seasons playing first-team football with the Bavarian club, achieving promotion from the third tier via the play-offs against VfL Osnabr\u00fcck in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>A year-long stint with Hamburger SV followed before Bilbija made the switch to Paderborn, where he went on to spend three seasons, notching 98 appearances and 35 goals in all competitions. <\/p>\n<p>His best season on record came last time out for Paderborn, who were lifted to promotion, with Bilbija\u2019s 17-goal tally in all competitions playing a vital role.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tmp_d16732c9-7521-4b67-b9ef-37e0ac7f137c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Notably, he scored all four in a 4-3 win over FC Magdeburg. He capped off the season in the promotion play-offs against Wolfsburg with a header in extra time, which saw the North Rhine-Westphalia club ascend to the top table of German football.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FB_Web_2026signing (4).png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>After completing his contract in Germany, Bilbija became a free agent, and Head Coach John Eustace secured the services of the versatile attacker, who has joined the Rams on a three-year deal ahead of the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filip Bilbija became Derby County\u2019s third summer signing ahead of the 2026\/27 season when he linked up with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}