Borna Sosa could be on his way to London to join Mateo Kovačić and Chelsea by the end of this month.
The official Chelsea F.C. website and Metro report that the reigning Champions League winners have shown keen interest in signing Sosa to be their starting left-back. Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell is expected to miss the rest of the season with a serious injury, leaving the left-back role wide open for the taking. Chelsea admire Sosa’s rare ability to play as an attacker and defender on the left side of the field, and are impressed with his form in the Bundesliga over the last two years. Inter Milan and Aston Villa had also shown interest in signing Sosa this winter, but both clubs were unwilling to pay Stuttgart’s asking price of 30 million Euros. Stuttgart believe that Sosa is extremely vital to their squad, and have refused to let him leave for a cheaper fee.
Sosa’s style of play fits Chelsea’s system perfectly. The Blues field a five-in-the-back formation and depend on their wingbacks to attack. Right-back Reece James and left-back Ben Chilwell have a combined seven goals this season in the Premier League alone. As shown in the heatnmap above, Sosa spends more time in the attacking half of the pitch than he does in the defensive half – perfectly suiting Chelsea’s tactics. The 24 year-old is also averaging 2.5 accurate crosses per match this season.
Croatia’s crop of young defenders are on the rise. Croatia is on the verge of fielding a world class defense for the first time in ages, thanks to the talents of Sosa, Gvardiol, Ćaleta-Car, and Vušković!
@The truth
“That problem will only get worse and worse as the eu membership has caused mass emigration from Croatia.”
Lol! Are these Croats that emigrate still expected to love Croatia more than the country they live in, the country that gives them all that they want?
And when their children are born in other countries and become good in some sport (Sucic, Stanisic, Vidovic etc.), will you expect them to want to represent Croatia, lol the country that gave their parents nothing but a desire to emigrate?
Do you really believe that EU membership is the cause of “mass emigration”?
“Croatia, like other countries, needs to confront this obstacle by allowing more immigration.”
Lol! The country that isn’t good enough for the Croats should be good enough for the immigrants?
And these immigrants when they have kids in Croatia and they become good in some sport, should they represent Croatia or the shit country their parents left, because make no mistake, you don’t leave something good?
Orsic just signed for burnley who are at the bottom of the table
He is way better than that
Another career ending with a move to England
The Silvio Maric curse is continuing
What’s the over/under that he’s back in the HNL in 3 years??? He’s 29 now. Not like Burnley are a lock to bounce back. They could easily sit in the Championship for a few years.
It’s decent money for Dinamo, considering Orsic is 29.
May have been better to simply keep him though…unless there is a young player that they think can replace him in the first team.
Making me curious to see if there is another future NT player they are planning to bring up.
@ maminjo
Mainly said that a lot of chest thumping from the veliki hrvati always but at the end of the day if jeffrey epstein could serve as high scoring target man, 90 percent of the people on this board would be content to give him a Croatian passport
Just look at how people looked past sosas betrayal or brekalos disgraceful behavior with the rainbow armband
Truth why are you so BUTT HURT at brekalo’s refusal to wear theLGBTQRST arm band?
Last I checked we were getting dummied by Russia in futsal
But hey least we beat them where it really matters
Speaking of non nationals…. They had at least two Brazilian sounding players on their team
Nice to see big clubs pursuing Sosa, but I would prefer he doesn’t go to Chelsea.
He would do well in England…but Chilwell is an English National Team player who will get priority over him under any circumstance.
@ iggy
This is not fear mongering at all and relevant to the sosa article
We constantly talk about how Croatia needs to overcome its small population for soccer. That problem will only get worse and worse as the eu membership has caused mass emigration from Croatia.
This is an issue that Germany doesn’t face and actually has the opposite effect. Sosa didn’t even go there as a kid and Germany tried to grab him. Imagine how many Croat families have now moved all over Europe with the eu that will create more of the same situation over and over again.
Croatia, like other countries, needs to confront this obstacle by allowing more immigration.
Many people try to hardline here that they would rather lose with a team of just pure Croats who love Croatia rather than have a more multi ethnic team like France and Germany.
But these people are largely liars. Really theyll just want to see Croatia win and get in the World Cup.
Remember how many hardliners said lifetime ban for sosa??? He starts playing well and looks like the lb of the future and not a single peep from the crowd anymore. Not many peeps about Eduardo in his prime but a lot of peeps about a mediocre samir. Lot of hopes a standout non Croat olmo picked Croatia too.
Likewise, a couple standout immigrants and 90 percent of the hardliners will quickly forget all about their “only ethnic Croat” stances
“Many people try to hardline here that they would rather lose with a team of just pure Croats who love Croatia rather than have a more multi ethnic team like France and Germany.”
You’re confusing Eduardo, Sammir and Olmo as being the same thing as a non-ethnic Croat that is born or raised in Croatia.
We’ve had a lot of non-ethnic Croat players like Sharbini, Rosso, Prso, Balaban, Schildenfeld, Srna play for our National Team and nobody ever had a problem with that at all. They were either born or raised in Croatia, which is also a multiethnic state (though not as multiethnic as Germany or France).
All these ethnic players (who play for Germany or France) have all been born or raised in these two countries…the same way a Palestinian-Croat kid like Sharbini was raised in Croatia and played for us. Nobody opposes this. But, bringing in players from outside (like when Januzaj was denied playing for England) is what a lot of countries’ football fans have a problem with. Not just Croatia.
I think many German fans would not have liked the idea of Sosa playing for them too, just the same as these Croat “hardliners” (as you call them) had problems with us trying to get people not born or raised in the country to play for us.
@the truth…the “truth” is nothing but an envious, sore half-Turk opanak who would love nothing more than to see Croatia turn from a 99.8% pure White country into a 50-50 moslem-Turk-brown-mixzone like his own beloved half-Turkey aka servia.
Sosa needs Champions League football. He’s ready for that leap.
If Chelsea pick him up and he’s a starter, I’m all for it. If he sits on the bench 50% off the time. No good. Maximum PT at the highest level is what I look for from our national team players. If they can master that without burning out; good for business.
Ante, i like it when our guys kick the ball into the opposing team’s goal : )
100% agree with you Ante!
What’s happening with that Smolcic from Rijeka, is he going to go to the Bundesliga or not?
Wow I didn’t realize that Chilwell is out for the season with a partial tear. Seems like Tuchel is not a fan of Alonso who was crushing it pre-covid but I guess it’s been a while. I’m still worried about the move but I definitely believe in Sosa’s skillset.
In other news, Chelsea just signed an 18 yo LB from the Rooney led Derby and gave him the number 3. Doesn’t the girl in the photo look like she fucks with the crew lol;
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10434533/Chelsea-complete-signing-18-year-old-left-Dylan-Williams-Derby.html
Latest census shows Croatias population fell by 400k over the past ten years.
Between low birth rate and emigration the writing is on the wall that the ethnic Croatian population is disappearing
In a hundred years, there will be few true ethnic Croats. But people should not worry about this as there is no such thing as a pure Croat. Human populations have been mixing for thousands and thousands of years
With that In mind it is best to embrace and start opening the door to more immigration to bolster the Croatian economy, population , diversity and future
Thanks for your useless scare-mongering, really appreciate it.
the Truth is the Truth- this is a sports website but what the Truth is saying is really important- if you don’t think there is a power move in Europe right now – you got another thing coming- if you read Croatian news paper the population issue is the countries biggest worry- and other European countries are taking notice like Russians and their allies- it’s going to be a crazy time in Europe for many wrong reasons.
Lol. Gaslighting again.
Great write-up U14!
Contrary to many Croats, I think this would be a good move. He’d have half a season to prove himself as a starter and Sosa is a similar profile to Chilwell, but younger and a better crosser. I think Chelsea fans would love a player like him.
Didn’t realize he would have a great crack at being a starter
Then go for it
He is not even in his prime yet
Even if this doesn’t pan out great maybe they move him in the summer
Another Croat In a top 10 team in world, very good news then
I still rather see him in Spain or Italy but make hay when the Sunshine’s
From public enemy number 1 to maybe Croatian hero one day
Then Bradarić can go to Stuttgart to replace him 😀