HERE. WE. GO!
21-year-old defender Joško Gvardiol has officially joined European champions Manchester City! After months of speculation, the center-back has agreed to terms with the English side, leaving Bundesliga competitors Red Bull Leipzig.
Although the official fee has not been announced, it is highly likely that this is the most expensive defensive transfer fee of all time. Leipzig previously stated that they would not sell Gvardiol for anything less than 100M euros.
City now has two Croatians set to star for them next season in Gvardiol and Kovačić. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Crochester City!
Luka looked sharp yesterday.
He still has the movement to align with his footballing mind.
I love that Real Madrid is deep and his minutes will finally be limited.
He will be fresh for Euro 2024.
Can you imagine in 2018 we would still have him for 2.5 major tournament runs!!
I pray Kovačić can take his game to a new level at Man City and be ready to lead our midfield.
Can a young striker ever come up ?!
Luka beauty assist last night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYF-29v24vA
Bad news for Orsic. He got injured at practice…will be out for 9 months.
Wow. A likely torn ACL.
What’s going on with our players and the knee injuries lately?
Too bad. He might miss out on the Euro’s now.
Might make it back to be a sub…but he was such an important player for us at the World Cup, it would be a shame to not have him at 100%.
If orsic didn’t have bad luck, he would have no luck at all
I was really hoping he would have come back hard this year
Should have stayed in Zagreb. I really thought he would with his good salary and great rep overall
Sigh
Good luck mislav
I really feel for Orsic. Been such a tough year for him.
And I can’t believe our guys have suffered yet another knee injury.
Wish Mislav a speedy recovery.
At practice even unbelievable.
Just watched the UEFA draw for 3rd qualifying draw for conference league.
Bad draw for Osijek. Hajduk will most likely come up against PAOK and I give them 40% chance of winning. Rijeka has a good opportunity of making to the final hurdle which is the play-off round.
Hajduk has drawn first leg at home against the winner from PAOK/or team from Israel. If Hajduk can eliminate PAOK they will be seeded in the play-off round.
Osijek if they eliminate a team from Hungary come up against winners from Cluj Romania or a Turkish team.
Rijeka had luck on their side and if they can eliminate a team from Kosovo in the second round will come up against winners from a clash involving Welsh and Faro Island team in the third round.
Dinamo will play Aek Athens if they can eliminate Astana.
Not a good draw.
Yikes, AEK are gonna be tough… they will face Vida and gang.
Guys, is it relatively rare for players to move directly from a small Belgian (or Dutch) side to a team in the top-5 league? I’m asking this with Frigan in mind.
I know circumstances are different but I wish he could have had a career path similar to Beljo’s. Had a breakout season at Istra, followed by a good half-season at Osijek before transferring to Augsburg.
Frigan only has 1 good HNL season under his belt, then (probably in part thanks to Miskovic’s strict asking price of 6M euros, I read Celta Vigo was interested) goes to some unknown Belgian side whose main priority next season, I’m sure, is to stay in the top flight. I get the feeling that if Frigan does well at Westerlo, his next move will probably just be Club Brugge, Anderlecht or Standard Liege. Thinking way ahead here, but I want Frigan to gain experience in a top-5 league before making our roster for WC2026 as the youngest striker and sort of the joker in the pack (I predict Beljo and Musa to be our first choice strikers by then). This is all very hypothetical of course… I’m aware that Frigan might not pan out and someone else could always emerge as a better option than him.
He made a mistake going Westerlo. He should of stayed at Rijeka another year or just gone to Dinamo. Should of gotten another season under his belt. Maybe with Rijeka or Dinamo he could of gotten some group stage Euro action. I think this has all the makings of him turning into a journeyman player that’ll bounce around the mid tier leagues in Europe. I’m happy to be proven wrong, just the feeling I have.
I agree.
Frigan only had one good season, and the smart move (for his development) would be to continue this good thing he has going. Lots of good players never get a chance to shine for their HNL team, and he has got something going in Rijeka. He should just let it ride, instead of disrupting all that by moving clubs already.
My guess is that Rijeka is just selling high because they’re more interested in making profit than developing Frigan.
It’s actually a good business decision considering they got 6 million for a player who may just be a one season wonder.
This move reminds me of when Ante Vukušić looked like a decent striker for Hajduk, had only one good scoring season, then prematurely went to newly promoted Pescara in Serie A.
Then never found his touch there and his career went sideways.
Not sure if playing at Westerlo is even any better than playing at Rijeka.
Sure, Belgian league is better than HNL but it’s still a feeder league largely filled with young players.
Hopefully Westerlo has some kind of development plan for Frigan, and all the same parameters that contributed to Frigan’s success at Rijeka exist at Westerlo as well.
Agreed. I don’t think Rijeka can pass up 6M at the end of the day, but money aside, feel like he would get the same type of opportunities and visibility if he stayed in the HNL. Maybe Rijeka kill it in UECL and they make it to groups and he could of gotten a Euro season under his belt. Or maybe Europa Leeague with Dinamo.
This is probably the one drawback of our National Team doing well in tournaments.
You get random clubs (like Westerlo) more willing to splurge on unproven talent in the Croatian league.
The normal process would have been for Frigan to play another season at Rijeka, then transfer to Dinamo, get more exposure at Dinamo, then be sold to a good club in a good league.
But now you’ve got a random team offering up more money right now than Dinamo would pay a year down the road. Financially, it’s a no brainer to take the money. But it might hurt Dinamo down the road as their pool of cheap talent from other HNL teams could be cut short.
Guys, agreed with everything you’ve said. Many good points raised.
I initially thought Frigan can get plenty of playing time at Westerlo so maybe not such a bad choice… but later on I started to have misgivings about the move.
Maminjo, you mentioned Ante Vukusic… oh gosh I recently saw his name on SN but had forgotten he was the guy whose career flamed out after going to Pescara. Interesting that you brought him up… but Vukusic did spend a few full seasons with Hajduk. The similarity that I see between Frigan and Vukusic is that both players left HNL for some random, no-pedigree outfit.
I note that Perisic played on loan at a lowly Belgian side, Roeselare, during the first half of 2009, before Club Brugge picked him up the following season. However, Perisic was pretty cheap back then, and cost Club Brugge only 250k euros. The fact that Frigan transferred for such a high, inflated fee is probably going to disadvantage him when it comes to a future transfer because Westerlo will want a return on their investment. How many clubs would be willing to shell out in excess of 5.5 to 6M for a star striker from Westerlo (assuming Frigan does perform).
Yah agree with you guys, I don’t see how playing at Westerlo is better than playing at Rijeka. His new team isn’t even playing in the Conference League qualifiers. And guess what, Westerlo’s stadium capacity is the lowest in the Belgian top flight, even lower than Rujevica. The place of Westerlo seems to be a suburb of Antwerp. Westerlo was playing in the Belgian 2nd tier from 2012-14 and 2017-22 so last season was their first season back in the top flight after a 5-year absence. They are nowhere near an established side in the Belgian top tier… picking a team like Gent or Genk would at least be a more understandable choice but Westerlo?? Unless they are embarking on some ambitious growth project, or a rich owner is pumping in funds to bolster the squad?
I can’t help but wonder if Frigan is a victim of circumstance, that perhaps he was under a bit of pressure from Miskovic to agree to a transfer in order to alleviate any financial burden on the club. Maybe if Frigan had complete freedom, he would have waited for a better offer. Your thoughts on that, Armada87?
I think that Leipzig are taking a risk in not selling Gvardiol. Players can sustain serious injuries and more often than not the players are never the same again.
This is mostly with ACL knee ligaments. The same applies with Luka Vuskovic at Hajduk. You are mad not to take the money on offer, because you never know what can happen tomorrow.
I read that RB Leipzig stated that a deal for Gvardiol wasn’t even close, that they don’t need the money, and that they prefer to keep him.
Given that Dinamo Zagreb would make a lot of money from a Gvardiol transfer, and that it is currently in doubt, does it make them more willing to make a deal for one more player this transfer window (specifically rumours with Šutalo, Ivanušec, and Petković)?
Baturina could also be on the list. If needed, I would guess that the one who gives them the most and enables Dinamo to give up the least, is the most likely candidate.
That said, not sure who they have to fill in the void left behind from any of them?
Question is, do they need the money??
I asked it a thread ago
But must have been missed
What is the average cost to run an HNL team for a season?
I’m assuming Dinamo some more cause assuming they put a bit more into their development overall
I don’t know the answer to the cost of running an HNL team?
Although I guess that Dinamo must make good money from sponsors to be able to finance the operation (given that their average attendance is 2.5 times less than Hajduk’s)?
The money from a Gvardiol transfer would go a long way for Dinamo; however, the large sum is likely another reason RB Leipzig are holding out for the full asking price.
Dinamo may also have been regularly making better deals in the past to retain higher percentages for future transfers, which helps fund them as well?
We are entering the Dario Simic era of Dinamo.
It would be pretty funny if Dinamo loses the title to Hajduk in his first year in charge, after winning it 17 out of the last 18 years under Mamic.
I don’t think Dinamo is starving for cash, but I worry that guys like Simic and Biscan don’t have the teeth to run a club like Dinamo in the corrupt World of Football.
Mamic has taken many Western clubs to the cleaners. The money coming from future Gvardiol and Olmo transfers should be benefiting Dinamo enough that they don’t need to prematurely sell any players right now (like Baturina).
I really hope that the guys that Mamic surrounded himself with are still at the club.
Dario Simic seems like a good person, but I get the feeling that he’s toothless in the business world. Other clubs will take advantage of this weakness.
Dinamo haven’t replaced the offense that was left by Orsic, and I was surprised to see he go to Trapzonspor for such a small fee, instead of coming back to Dinamo.
They brought in a couple of CBs for more money than what they could have used to bring back Orsic, which I assume means they are trying to sell Sutalo.
Unless a couple of our Dinamo youth guys take a big step up, Dinamo will have a big problem trying to replace the offense left by Orsic (and Ivanusec and Bruno if they are sold as well).
We love you Joško! The Chinese wanted you to protect against The Mongols but we told em to take a hike and stick it where the sun don’t shine!
Ljubicic scored the first goal in LASK’s 6-0 win over some third tier side in the Austrian Cup 1st round. No idea if he assisted any of the other goals.
***
Musa scored in Benfica’s 2-0 win over Celta Vigo in a friendly. His goal came in the 91st min, right after the match restart following Di Maria’s penalty goal in the 90th min. It is Musa’s first goal in pre-season.
https://youtu.be/KWnqkHrXnf4?t=128
He came in at halftime.
I hope they try and integrate him into the starting eleven somehow.
Hmm… seems hard as Benfica plays a formation with only 1 center forward. Even if Goncalo Ramos gets sold, I do wonder if they will promote Musa to the first team. If the situation doesn’t change, maybe Musa should consider moving out on loan during the winter.
***
Beljo also scored in a friendly match against PSV. Long range effort. Excerpt from Augsburg website below (I’m unable to access the video highlights).
“FC Augsburg suffered a 2-1 defeat across two 75-minute matches against PSV Eindhoven in their final friendly at training camp.
FCA debuted their new all-black third kit in today’s friendly, in front of nearly 400 spectators. Dion Beljo opened the scoring with a long-range effort in the 15th minute. FCA’s lead didn’t last long, however, with former Gladbach man Luuk De Jong tapping in the equaliser just four minutes later (19’). Further chances from Isaac Babadi (21’) and Beljo (34’) also went begging.”
https://www.fcaugsburg.de/en/article/2-1-defeat-in-friendly-against-psv-18382
This will be an interesting season for the repka. Marko Rog came back from injury to help Cagliari join Serie A again (their relegation to Serie B correlates directly with the time he was out injured); could he put himself back on Dalić’s radar with a strong season in Serie A? He is a high-impact, high-work-rate player who is still fairly young. Barisić may well be going to the English premier league, which would be a significant upgrade in competition. In doing so, he could significantly raise his game and become a strategic piece instead of just a dependably physical stopgap in case of injury or fatigue. Also, Colak has moved from Scotland to Serie B in order to get playing time again. I still can’t believe that he only played in four matches under Beale after scoring 14 (or was it 18?) goals under Van Bronkhorst, and I doubt that he will feature for the repka anytime soon, but what if he tears it up in Serie B the way he tore it up at Rangers under his original manager?
Marko Rog is way past it imo, but it was more of frequent injuries that have set him back.
Barisic I do not rate as well, don’t think he is of a quality to be with the NT hence that’s why even Perisic has replaced him at LB and also Sosa.
As for Colak, there is no chance he’ll get called up even after the insane run he had went on just before the World Cup which Dalic was way too stubborn in finding a striker (he’s still doing it now).
We have a lot of guys who are having decent seasons and are waiting in line to get a chance. Musa, Beljo, Jakic, Sucic (when he gets back from injury) and probably now Baturina are a few examples.
Barisic would have to win a starting spot in the EPL to be considered.
Colak would have to be the leading scorer of Serie B…by a wide margin.
Rog would have to hope for at least a dozen injuries…and even then, I still think Dalic goes with a random HNL player or youth player over him. Rog has always been garbage.
Rog is perfect e.g. of how we should try to incorporate young players – now – and build around Gvardiol, etc for next decade
Rog had most of his caps b/w age of 20-22 – he didn’t deliver / wasn’t good enough to take a full-time spot – so he moves to fringes / then out completely – and start again w/ new youth – rinse & repeat till we get players that are good enough
I agree, but you shouldn’t just start a player simply because they are the same age as your best young players.
Start your best players, no matter what their age is.
If Broz and Modric are still our two best midfielders in the 2026 World Cup, then start them.
But if there is a negligible difference between two players, then yes, I agree with starting the younger player and trying to have them build chemistry with the young core.
A perfect example of this is deciding between starting Lovren and Sutalo. Another is Livaja and Musa or Beljo. Negligible differences between these vets and the young players who could easily replace them. You go with the younger one.
I am thinking of Kramaric, Barisic, Petkovic, Pasalic – also Vlasic and Majer (unless they have step-change improvement at their club teams)
e.g. Perisic has had an incredible career – but time to give the spot to a younger player
Modric, Rakitic, Srna, Mandzukic, Eduardo, Olic, etc etc – all had their debut at 19-21 (more or less) – and became regulars rather quickly – they weren’t the best players on the pitch – but their potential was clear (think Modric / Rakitic Euro 2008 vs. WC 2018)
You’ve made the point many times before (which I agree) Dalic is scared to give young players w/ real upside potential a run
Now is the time to do it – esp. so they can learn while Modric is still around
All of those things are possible. That’s why I say it will be an interesting season. When your third-string left back is tipped to become the starter at a premier league club (Nottingham Forest) and even the players who have been left for dead are doing things to be relevant, it significantly raises the bar for performance worthy of the reprezentacija. Everyone has to raise their game under those circumstances.
Hmm… so the Gvardiol transfer to City is up in the air now.
But come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind if he stays a lil’ longer at Leipzig. His team is still playing in the CL this season. And it’d be nice if Gvardiol can turn it up another notch to dominate the Bundesliga.
My only concern is his injuries… hope the guy can take additional steps to protect his body from injury… guy still has a long career ahead of him.
i love suckling pigs nipples
The Croats are genetically superior
We are tough mofos
Anyone have a great link to Dinamo Hajduk ?
No deal yet for Josko…
This was a bit premature…
Happy July Fools! Wait me up when it is a done deal, and the Crochester jerseys are printed.
Many people on this site frequently and mistakenly believe that Croatians have some kind of physical genetic advantage that allows them to succeed at sports. That is clearly untrue and the women’s world cup is a shining example of this.
For this to be true you would need 1) a population to significantly punch above its weight 2) you would need the people of that population to emerge as the best even when they did not live in that area so as to reduce cultural sporting influences 3) you would need to see the females equally as successful as the males in order to further neutralize the sporting culture effect
A clear example where you do see this for example would be in the sub population of Kenya that dominates long distance running. They 1) punch massively above their weight 2) even runners of that ancestry dominate their peers when raised in other countries 3) the women also dominate like the men.
Croatia punches above its weight, but its largely because it has a sporting culture that encourages high levels of participation and has good training (think Dinamo). But it does not check numbers 2 and 3 with number 3 being a particular negation of the claim that Croatians have some kind of genetic advantage.If that were the case, we’d expect to see female Croatian athletes also punch above their weight but that is non existent as seen by Croatia not being able to field successful soccer or basketball teams, which leads to the only conclusion: Croatia’s sports success is soley due to its sporting culture.
I disagree.
It’s a combination of these things, and genetics does play a major role.
Croats are both tall AND athletic.
There are lots of tall people in Northern Europe and Eastern Europe, but they lack the athleticism to excel in sports like basketball, waterpolo and handball (despite its popularity in these countries). Croatia, despite falling off here and there in some of these sports, are still consistently good in these sports, even though the sports culture is not as crazy for these sports when compared to football (and the money is piss poor).
With regards to Croatian women…
Women in Croatia tend to follow more traditional norms than women in Western countries. Croatian women are not going to be “all in” when it comes to sports like the men are (like many women are in other countries) and the money for women’s sports in Croatia is very bad. So, to compare Croatian men and women equally is false. There are still remarkable female athletes in Croatia, but we’re picking from an even smaller pool than the men’s pool, which is reflected in the results.
On top of this (which shatters your argument even further) is that the best Croatian female athletes are genetic freaks like Sandra Perković and Janica Kostelić. At their peak, these two women were pretty much the Serena Williams of their respective sports. Massive genetic advantage over other women.
Also, I don’t understand how you can make that comment about “the Croat population not emerging as the best even when they did not live in Croatia” when the top athletes in countries with any Croat diaspora has all-time greats in their ranks.
Joe Simunic ended up with three yellow cards in the 2006 World Cup draw against Australia because the referee got confused between the players representing Croatia and Australia (because they were all Croatian).
Despite such a relatively small population of diaspora Croats (relative to the rest of the population of these Western countries), there are literal Hall of Famers and Champions in their respective disciplines, or at least were (at their peak) the top sports athletes in their discipline in their respective countries.
In NBA basketball you had George Mikan, Rob Havlicek, Kevin McHale, Rudy Tomjanovic, Greg Poppovich…
In NHL you had Joe Sakic, Frank Mahovlich
In MLB baseball you had Roger Maris
In Golf you had Fred Couples
Australia’s top basketball and football players were Croats in Andrew Bogut and Mark Viduka
USA’s captain for soccer is Christian Pulisic
In boxing and MMA you have Stipe Miocic, George Chuvalo, Fritzie Zivich
I’m not even looking at Europe and other countries (like Karabatic brothers in French handball, or Ibrahimovic for Sweden).
This is just off the top of my head.
It’s absolute insanity that Croats are even in the discussion for all-time greats (considering Croatia’s diaspora make up maybe 0.0001% of their birth countries’ all-time population), yet we seem to have MULTIPLE all-time greats across a lot of sports and countries.
Genetics is a massive part of it.
It seems like in general, that Slavic/Celtic people excel in athletics. I would say, that if you are generally taller and you create sports where the action is up high, if you are tall, you have an advantage, above and beyond, quick twitch muscles, or hand and eye coordination skills, etc.
Please name we one slavic horse jockey. Most rodeo Bull Riders are actually quite small I noticed as well. Is a tall person going to win a limbo contest?
With that said, The 3 -point line has changed the success rate of small people in basketball, and a small athletic guy, can be more productive that a not so athletic 6-9″ center. Marko Petrovic would have excelled in today’s game even more so.
Frigan to Westerlo?? If true, love that move for the youngster
I think it’s an interesting move for Frigan. He should get plenty of playing time there. Good luck to him!
I think he needed another year in the HNL… it’s a good move still but I can see him getting lost in that league and going down the journeyman route. But if Rijeka get 6M for him, hard to say no to that.
Yea he only had one year in HNL that was good (not great but good).
Odds are he’s a nothingburger, so I can’t blame Rijeka for selling.
Kristijan Lovrić was also talked about a lot after one good year, and he just ended up going to Osijek (and fizzled out).
Ideally, you want to see at least two good HNL seasons before deciding whether or not you have something special or not.
Frigan going to Belgium is a good option. The only problem is the club he is going to, I have never heard of the club before.
Hopefully they won’t struggle and get relegated.
Depends on the type of striker he is.
If he’s reliant on some sort of service from his midfielders, then going to some midtable Belgium team that doesn’t have that kind of midfield may end up being a disaster move for him.
Does not matter how good Gvardiol is, it will still take him a while to adjust to the English PL. It will help that he is going to a top club full of world class players so we can only hope that he will have a smooth transition.
He’s built perfectly for the EPL game, along with his style of play.
I think the only concern would be injuries, since he’s had several already.
Probably cost us the Nations League trophy.
Gvardiol will excel in England my estimation .
He’s powerful, explosive and unflappable. He is everything you want in a CB.
And the best is he is ours at least for a decade if not more.
I think this could be a great move for Gvardiol, I think Guardiola intends to use and develop the guy he is certainly suggesting as much when being interviewed about it. As e already know, the price tag is gonna be high so I don’t think they have much a choice but to use the guy really.
There are also some articles online that are suggesting that this will be Modric’s final year with Real Madrid and that he intends to retire after this year, I don’t know of I tis true.
But this looks like it could be his final run for a possible Champions League, if Real can managed a deep run again. I know it’s not related to any Croatian player but some rumours are also suggesting that Real could sign Mbappe this summer could be interesting for them with such a transfer as he is a very impactful player. This could help him seal another Champions League trophy making it a sixth.
Many possible moves could be interesting to see what happens.
A Nation’s Story: Croatia’s World Cup run part of new series on FIFA+
https://www.croatiaweek.com/a-nations-story-croatias-world-cup-run-part-of-new-series-on-fifa/
I’ll watch this, so long as they don’t mention the war as a driving force for our players “overachieving”.
Most of these guys were infants (or not even born) when the war took place, and it’s not really “overachieving” when your core players are starting on the top teams in Europe.
Thanks for sharing !
Already @ 4 minutes – Hardman we’re going to F Croatia – what a smirking smuck – Niko Sigur wants u to suck his BBCC
Manchustase City
For this reason alone, I wish our players went to Man U
I would’ve liked Man United to have gotten Gvardiol the year earlier as they are also my favourite team and never seen a Croatian play for United, he would’ve been half the price but United have such an inept board within the football side of things at the club.
Now, I can still see a Croatian at Old Trafford that player is Josip Sutalo. I find him to be a player that Ten Hag would like but there is no chance that will happen.
Gvardiol and Kovačić going to be at another level for Euro ‘24.
Peder pep has an ability to bring out the best of sigma males ..
Alphas like Zlatan and MANdzukic are not his cup of tea has they are a different breed.
Cro city is going to be prime time EPL and CL.
Can imagine the space that Kovačić will have the middle of the pitch?!
Slalom runs all day long.
I wonder if he is ready to become world class?
Gvardiol already at that level and will fine tune his skills no doubt at Cro City – CC.
Totally agree
Kovacic will look so elegant next to KDB
Gvardiol will have the freedom / might end up playing almost as a deep-laying midfielder in transition forward
Will be beautiful to watch them in action – can’t wait
I’m big on our boys playing together
Like just think how much sutalo and gvardi would be for us if they played a whole season together
One of the reasons that helped make that Spain/Barca era so good
But even gvardi and kova together should help maybe in our link up
Gvardi is the now and future
Kova is the now we need
I’m hoping pep will unlock him A bit more as zidane helped luka hit world class
Kovacic will finally have the space to score more goals – given the quality around him – as he’ll be the last person folks will think the shot will come from – don’t be shocked if he puts in 10+ this year
Curious
What does the average hnl team need to operate?
What about Dinamo?
They are obviously in over abundance mode
The reason why the Mandzukic of 2018 has been and may continue to be so hard to replace is that he was both a superb athlete AND already very experienced by 2018. He had been competing at the highest levels of club football for 8 years already and also had years of experience with Croatia behind him, including a few big disappointments that forged his bond with the other players on that 2018 team. He had won the Champions League in 2012 and also been the Bundesliga’s top scorer. He had learned the playing and training systems of several different great managers. He was ready to win international matches under the highest pressure and achieve peak performance. He was not just an “above average striker,” he was one of the world’s very best attacking players, and one of the great players of his generation! How do you replace that? Maybe there will be no Mandzukic 2.0. But there will be a peak Mateo Kovacic, a peak Josko Gvardiol, a peak Dion Beljo, a peak Josip Sutalo, etc. These players are all great athletes who are still on their way to the top. And if they are starting at this high of a level, they can win a world cup. We should not put a timeline on it. But we must believe that it is possible. That can be the legacy of Mandzo, Corluka, Lovren, Subasic, and even Badelj. Look where they got with what they had! Just imagine what this younger group can do with even more extraordinary skills! All it will take is the drive and the persistence. Ajmo!
Sir, this is a Gvardiol discussion.
That’s why I keep saying – u need to build a generation + / – 2 years around Gvardiol – so 19 to 23 – so they can play 10+ years (5+ tournaments) together (as we saw in the 2008 to 2018 – most of the team played together for 10 years straight – give or take a couple names)
For now – of course we keep Modric, Kovacic and Brozovic for as long as they want to/can play – but other than that – cull every one else
Kramaric – out Barisic – out Petkovic – out Pasalic – out
Vlasic / Majer / Sosa / Erlic / Musa – all out (too old – to be in the 19 to 23 range i.e. when Gvardiol is 30 – these guys will be 34-35)
Integrate the best guys now from U21 now (look at how many caps Gavi already has for Spain at 20)
This is huge…if he continues to play and improve under Pep, he will be one of the best in the world. Good news for Dinamo too. They’re set to make around 15-16 million euros.
Dinamo be ballin these days!
It’s good
Keep up the development of the youth
Even if you are die hard Hajduk, you got to tip your hats off to the work Dinamo has done
Sure gvardiol is a beast but still got to develop it and know how to sell it
He could have easily been sold off somewhere earlier and lost in the abyss
Dinamo have been smart with their development, and selling of players recently. They’ve built up a good relationship with Leipzig, hopefully it continues. I’m sure Dani Olmo will make both clubs a good profit in the future. I like our young guys going to Germany to further their development before making the next big move.
Doesn’t Dinamo get like 20-25% off this transfer?
I know that Leipzig desperately tried to find a loophole to avoid paying. Not sure if they succeeded.
Cro media is reporting 20%
Oh ok. I thought Olmo was 20% and Gvardiol was 25%.
Either way, Dinamo is going to make a killing off both of their transfers.
I’m sure if Leipzig wants to buy Sutalo, they’ll probably insist on a lower “future transfer %” this time, ha ha.
as much as I HATE Pep Guardiola and Man City, I feel Gvardiol will do well at this club and his experience there will help him with our National Team as well!
Congratulations to Gvardiol…well deserved!