Israeli newspapers reported that the Beitar Jerusalem manager traveled to Romania on Friday to negotiate with several players, including Mirko Ivanovski.

Baitar Jerusalem was also rumored to be interested in Ivanovski this past January, but the Israeli club and Astra, Mirko’s current team, could not reach a deal.  When we interviewed Ivanovski in late March, we asked him some off-the-record questions about the Beitar Jerusalem rumors.  He confirmed that there was genuine interest from Beitar, but the problem was that Astra was only interested in a complete sale, not a loan (which was the wish of Beitar).  So, the deal fell through and Ivanovski remained in Romania.

Mirko’s situation with Astra has not changed.  He has rarely played over the past couple of months as Ivanovski has been on the bench for most games.  Mirko is well down the pecking order at striker, and his lack of playing time has cost him a spot on the Macedonian national team as he was not called up by manager Boshko Gjurovski for the two friendlies in late May against Cameroon and Qatar.

Beitar Jerusalem is coming off a disappointing season, so they will be looking to strengthen the team in the summer.  Menachem Koretsky was named the new manager for the 2014-15 campaign, and he has now traveled to Romania to look at players to reinforce the squad, with Mirko Ivanovski being one of the players they are looking it.  Ivanovski has a contract with Astra until the summer of 2015, so the two sides will need to agree on a transfer fee for Mirko to move to Israel.  We shall see what takes place over the coming days and/or weeks.