Barcelona are set to sign 18-year-old Croatian attacking midfielder Lovro Chelfi, according to Fabrizio Romano. Chelfi will join Barcelona Atlètic, the club’s B team, which will play in Spain’s fourth division next season after being relegated.
Chelfi had drawn interest from several Premier League clubs, including Arsenal, but Barcelona have moved quickly to secure the deal. According to Spanish outlet SPORT, the club will pay €500,000 for 50 percent of Chelfi’s rights. As part of the agreement with NK Kustošija, Barcelona will also have the option to purchase the remaining 50 percent over the next couple of years. The total cost could rise to €2 million depending on performance and future terms.
A product of Dinamo Zagreb’s academy, Chelfi made a surprise switch in January 2024 to NK Kustošija, a club in Croatia’s third tier. Despite being one of the youngest players in the league, he held his own in senior competition, scoring 3 goals in 21 Druga NL matches. Including U19 fixtures, he finished the season with 13 goals in 44 appearances.
He is a left-footed, creative midfielder with excellent vision, quick feet, and the ability to drive the ball forward. He consistently finds open teammates in attacking areas and shows great composure under pressure. Defenders often need to foul him to stop his runs. While primarily a central attacking midfielder, he can also play on the wing.
He is represented by Andy Bara, the agent of Dani Olmo, Lovro Majer and Álvaro Morata. Bara also handled the transfer of Mikayil Faye from Kustošija to Barcelona in 2023. Chelfi will now become the second player from Kustošija to sign with the Catalan club.
Chelfi is a Croatia youth international and is of Croatian and Algerian descent. He will now look to continue his development at one of the best clubs in the world.
RIP Real Modrić
Ajmo AC Modrić !!
Dear nose-pickers –
Sorry to disturb your perpetual vacation – but we have a mini-keeper crisis (all three of them) in case you haven’t realized yet….
Livakovic – Fener trying to unload him (no buyers) – apparently he came to pre-season dejected and checked-out
Ivusic – moving backwards (worse league by UEFA country coefficient) for 500k (Dalic doesn’t call up ex-Dinamo HNL – save Fruk – so should be dropped by NT – we should have never called up a Cyprus league player to begin with)
Kotarski – also moving backwards (worse league by UEFA country coefficient) for at least a respectable 5m
Guess there is Swiss league Letica at Lusanne (was on standby recently) and Pink Pandur at Hull City
Who else is out there good enough for the NT ???
Can we take one of the keepers from the water-polo or handball team and repurpose them for nogomet ????
Watched Psg vs Madrid in the club world club. Madrid started sluggish but it changed when Modric came on around the 60th minute. They started to play faster and more attacking football. Modric almost had 2-3 assists within 5 minutes. He had a good game but it does seem he gets tired quickly. Although he was running every where on the pitch. The crowd cheered when Modric came on. Madrid should have kept him for one more year at least.
Luka Vuskovic has a new speedy and dribbly forward teammate Kudus from West Ham for gbp55m
Those long diagonal passes will come in real handy 😉
Jarrod Bowen must be 😢
After my comment the other, this post could not be more timely to prove my point on immigration.
Mix natural Algerian talent like the kind we’ve seen from zidane, benzema and others that have propelled the French team to glory with the academy system of Croatia and you get a strong prospect.
I’m guessing we’ll never hear of this kid again but the more of them we have, the better our odds are
No, you’re wrong. More is not better
Kotarski going norway..hopefully not the next ivusic..i hope a gk can compete with livakovic
Lovro Chelfi is the next halilovic?
Did anyone see what a Serb just gave Speed in a LVMH box (hint it’s not a purse).
Wow.
Just.
Wow.
Anonymous is, maybe for the first time ever, speechless.
They are unbelievably stupid to do this.
Wait till Mr T. (Bar*n will show him), EU and NATO find out.
The blow-back will rightfully be significant.
Unreal stuff.
He also asked a group of old guys in a quiet corner of a restaurant if they are the Mafia (!!!) (this happened before the LVMH box, not sure if it’s related, but wouldn’t be a shock).
The old guys looked a bit stunned that Speed was so brazen – if the cameras weren’t there filming them (which I’m sure they weren’t ecstatic that it captured them all together in one place) – pretty sure we know how it would have gone down…
Can someone explain this? i have missed this completely
Latest media reports have Matanovic at Freiburg in a 4-year deal, hopefully a good move where he gets to play. They finished 5th in Bundesliga so will play in Europe.
Kotarski has gone to FC Kopenhagen, not sure if this is a good career move ? Greek league is stronger than Danish, not sure if PAOK told him to move ?
There is also talk that Sosa might be heading to EPL and Crystal Palace ?
Kudos to the Croatian Sports Staff, thank you so much for your efforts and love for the beautiful game.
This sites constant flow of information, is truly amazing and appreciated.
Minus the very small minority of left leaning weirdos, that try to bully everyone into submission and destroy the comment boards.
Again, thank you all for your incredible efforts.
Which “left leaning weirdos” ? There are none on this group. Truths comments aren’t ‘left’, they are centrist economic pragmatism. They are also tongue in cheek
And at least The truth2 isn’t barraging this place with stupid social media posts and links.
For the record I am a lover of traditional Croatian music especially from Dalmacija mostly regarding with topics revolving around the nature, love, seagulls, and the sea.
I think many people who visit this site, believe that Marko Thompson is a “stain” to Croatia society, and so are the other 2.5 million who enjoy his music, as well as the current soccer players. They believe they need to be purged, reprogrammed until the sanitization is complete, and if not, then be replaced by better global soccer players with better athletic ability. That is their vision for Croatia, and the only acceptable solution. They cringed at the celebration in 2018, to see Luka Modric singing Geni Kameni, will tears rolling down his face.
I was referred to as a Chimpanzee, from the person who takes care of this website, suggesting that Marko Thompson music is important artist to modern day Croatia society at least in Slavonia. It is apparent that there is a Dalmatian and Slavonia cultural divide, similar in America where the rural religious, have different values than the well-educated non church attending urban secular humanist, that I fully don’t appreciate it. Liberalism use to be just that, accepting of other’s ideas and values, but today liberalism now is highlighted by rigid doctrine. Always considered myself liberal until recently, maybe I am not. There is a new definition of what liberal is.
Ad hominem attacks or cancellation is all you receive if you don’t follow the thought police, rather than an intelligent discussion.
But none of that happens here, let’s be clear
It’s pretty simple.
Yugos hate Thompson, Croats love Thompson.
Anyone on this site who considers Thompson negative in any way is either a Yugo, or they’re just ignorant Westerners that simply don’t know much about Croatia (irregardless of whether their parents came from Cro or not).
According to the Truth , if he wears the rainbow armband he will hit max ceiling potential and win the Ballon d’Or, rotflmao.
I can’t make this up this up, please put me out of my misery, SMH.
Never heard of this kid before nor have I seen him play for any of our youth teams. Did a bit of search on Google and he was born in Zagreb but has not played for any of our youth teams from what I could find ?
Good luck to him hopefully he succeeds and choses to play for Croatia.
Looks like a aggressive offensive mali