Mateo Kovacic

Man City lead chase for £25m-rated Croatian starlets Vrsaljko and Kovacic
By Ashley Gray
Last updated at 8:09 AM on 13th December 2011

Manchester City are leading the race to sign Croatian wonderkids Sime Vrsaljko and Mateo Kovacic but have been warned they face strong competition for the £25million-rated pair.

Arsenal retain an interest in the duo after trying to sign the pair from Dinamo Zagreb last January, when they were not prepared to pay more than £15m.

Since then their reputations have been bolstered by solid performances in the Champions League and at international level, with scouts flocking to watch 17-year-old attacking midfielder Kovacic in particular.

Zdravko Mamic, the Dinamo executive president whose son Mateo is the players' agent, was in England for talks about the players last week and is expected to return this week.

Scouts from Chelsea, Everton, Tottenham, Bayern Munich, Udinese, Zenit St Petersburg, Borussia Dortmund, Malaga, Wolfsburg, Spartak Moscow and Dinamo Moscow were all present in Zagreb on Wednesday for Dinamo's now infamous 7-1 defeat by Lyon.

Sources in Croatia say 19-year-old right back Vrsaljko is close to clinching a January move to the Etihad Stadium, but City are said to be keen to strike a double deal.

Vrsaljko, who can also play at left back, won his first cap this year and is expected to go to Euro 2012 despite Croatia having a wealth of established talent in his position.

Kovacic has generously been compared to Lionel Messi and plays with a similar style to David Silva.

He has been well known to Europe's elite for many years and is enjoying a breakthrough season that saw him become Dinamo's youngest captain - at 17 years and 82 days - in August.

Last season he became the youngest debutant in the Croatian league and scored in a 6-0 win aged 16 years and 198 days.
 
Maybe I could help you a little :D even though I am from Bosnia, I have a lot of friends from Croatia and I know some thing about Dinamo. Zdravko Mamic is the chairman of the Dinamo and he is in some kind of a " fight " with the fans who aren't coming to the matches because of him. Zdravko Mamic is a very powerfull guy in Balkan terms, his main ability to sell players for enormous amount, for example Zeljeznicar is the biggest club in Bosnia ( it is the club where Dzeko started his career ) and the biggest amount that Zeljeznicar sold his player is somewhere about 800.000 euro, and Dinamo sold : Kranjcar, Modric, Corluka, Eduardo.... I think that £25m is much higher than the true value of Kovacic and Vrsaljko. Kovacic is very talented players, he is the younges player who was the captain in Dinamo, he is very skilfull dribbler and good in attack but in my opinion Vrsaljko would be better purchase, he is good in defense, but he is better in attacking part of the game, his main ability is very good crosing, and he reminds a lot of Micah, and MAYBE with good trainings he could become a good RB, I think he would be a good investment because he is very talented. I am not here like many bosnians to write just about Dzeko, I would be glad to help you with the potential signings from balkan ...

Kovacic- <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2WApNHJPhw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2WApNHJPhw</a>

Vrsaljko- <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jTsESCGbA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jTsESCGbA</a>
 
richardsm said:
Maybe I could help you a little :D even though I am from Bosnia, I have a lot of friends from Croatia and I know some thing about Dinamo. Zdravko Mamic is the chairman of the Dinamo and he is in some kind of a " fight " with the fans who aren't coming to the matches because of him. Zdravko Mamic is a very powerfull guy in Balkan terms, his main ability to sell players for enormous amount, for example Zeljeznicar is the biggest club in Bosnia ( it is the club where Dzeko started his career ) and the biggest amount that Zeljeznicar sold his player is somewhere about 800.000 euro, and Dinamo sold : Kranjcar, Modric, Corluka, Eduardo.... I think that £25m is much higher than the true value of Kovacic and Vrsaljko. Kovacic is very talented players, he is the younges player who was the captain in Dinamo, he is very skilfull dribbler and good in attack but in my opinion Vrsaljko would be better purchase, he is good in defense, but he is better in attacking part of the game, his main ability is very good crosing, and he reminds a lot of Micah, and MAYBE with good trainings he could become a good RB, I think he would be a good investment because he is very talented. I am not here like many bosnians to write just about Dzeko, I would be glad to help you with the potential signings from balkan ...

Kovacic- <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2WApNHJPhw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2WApNHJPhw</a>

Vrsaljko- <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jTsESCGbA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jTsESCGbA</a>
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting.
The £25m is a fantasy figure. City will never pay that for unproven teenagers
 
richardsm said:
Maybe I could help you a little :D even though I am from Bosnia, I have a lot of friends from Croatia and I know some thing about Dinamo. Zdravko Mamic is the chairman of the Dinamo and he is in some kind of a " fight " with the fans who aren't coming to the matches because of him. Zdravko Mamic is a very powerfull guy in Balkan terms, his main ability to sell players for enormous amount, for example Zeljeznicar is the biggest club in Bosnia ( it is the club where Dzeko started his career ) and the biggest amount that Zeljeznicar sold his player is somewhere about 800.000 euro, and Dinamo sold : Kranjcar, Modric, Corluka, Eduardo.... I think that £25m is much higher than the true value of Kovacic and Vrsaljko. Kovacic is very talented players, he is the younges player who was the captain in Dinamo, he is very skilfull dribbler and good in attack but in my opinion Vrsaljko would be better purchase, he is good in defense, but he is better in attacking part of the game, his main ability is very good crosing, and he reminds a lot of Micah, and MAYBE with good trainings he could become a good RB, I think he would be a good investment because he is very talented. I am not here like many bosnians to write just about Dzeko, I would be glad to help you with the potential signings from balkan ...

Kovacic- <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2WApNHJPhw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2WApNHJPhw</a>

Vrsaljko- <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jTsESCGbA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jTsESCGbA</a>
Click to expand...

Cheers mate.

Both look very talented lads to me. The good thing about the highlights from Kovacic are that a lot are from one game, so you can see how he actually plays rather than just random high spots from a season. I have to say that David Silva would have been reasonably happy with that particular performance.
 
The league best two full backs were sold for 5 & 6 Million ( Jose Enrique & Clichy )
Why on earth does City needs to spend 25 M on unproved teenagers !
 
never gonna be 25 millions but Mamic's journos are obviously pumping the prices, they do it all the time when big boss needs to sell something.

Mamic is in pretty bad situation right now, 2-3 days ago 2 high positioned Croatian FA officials (ex refs) have been arrested for taking money to fix matches and as he is the chief of Croatian football even if he doesn't have official position of such, the law is coming closer and closer to him so it might be a good time to take something cheaper than usual from there.
 
IF we are serious about them we have to sign them now before they turn 19, because of the homegrown rule.
 
It looks like we're still looking at Kovacic and Vrsaljko:

Manchester City football club scouts in Zagreb
Croatian Times

Scouts from English premiership football clubs Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers were amongst fans at Zagreb's Maksimir stadium at the weekend to watch Dinamo Zagreb take on Osijek in the Croatian 1st divison. The scouts came particularly to take a closer look at two of Dinamo Zagreb's promising star players, Mateo Kovacic and Sime Vrsaljko. There has been a lot of speculation in the media recently about interest in signing the two players from the English clubs, with Manchester City and Arsenal previously connected with the Croatians. The scouts however left a little bit disappointed, as the pair failed to impress in Dinamo's narrow 1-0 win, reported sports daily, Sportske novosti.
 
For those that dont know much about this youngster, here is some info about him. I wrote the info on September the 29th, a future star, and quite possibly he will be the best export out of Croatia since the Yugoslavia split.

<a class="postlink-local" href="http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=234955&p=4858679&hilit=Kovacic#p4858679" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">viewtopic.php?f=10&t=234955&p=4858679&hilit=Kovacic#p4858679</a>

Mateo Kovacic

13501


Carrying on from Julian Draxler, Mateo Kovacic is also another attacking midfielder who plays for Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia. Croatia is where Mateo has made his name at such an early age being the youngest to play and score in the MAXtv Prva Liga.

This season Mateo has been on fire, scoring 3 goals and assisting twice in 9 league games. At the age of 17, he is also representing the U20 Croatian national side, and is yet another youngster that has been given the "New Messi" tag. Although i like to think of him as more of a Fabregas type of player.

Kovacic, like Silva may not be blessed with strength, but he isn't scared to get stuck in to try and win the ball back. On the up side, Mateo is two footed, has great passing abilities, has pace in abundance and can dribble with the ball as if the ball is glued to his feet. His first touch is one of the best i have seen from a kid so young, and this touch allows him to create space and show his aray of talent.

Mateo made his debut for Dinamo last season as a 16 year old and pretty much ever since he has had scouts from other clubs watching him in abundance. The teams that have already kept an eye on this kid are, Bayern, Real Madrid, Man Utd, Arsenal, Roma, Barca, Ajax, Juve and Stuttgart.

A wonderful talent that the world deserves to see, and will undoubtedly become the best export out of Croatian football.

Enjoy the video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2WApNHJPhw[/youtube]
Click to expand...
 
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