A sure way to drive interest in a player and their price up is to declare that a club like United is interested in them. We’ve seen it often enough this summer being a prime example where we were linked with such a large number of player but eventually signed none of them.
Yesterday Dinamo Zagreb president Zdravko Mamic declared that they may be ready to listen to offers for their wonder kid Sime Vrsaljko (pronounced – “She-meh Vers-al-yu-ko”), a pretty strange move as most clubs usually come out stating that they will be doing their utmost to keep their young talent but Mamic said quite frankly:
“It is normal for a club like ours to survive by selling our best players.”
It appears that he is looking to get a decent fee for the 18 year old but what’s so special about him that makes Mamic think that people will be interested?
The youngster has been making waves after going on loan to feeder club Lokomotiva in 09/10 aged 17 where he made 17 appearances starting every game. He returned to Zagreb in December making 10 appearances as Zagreb went on to win the Croatian league.
This season he has forced his way into the Zagreb first team on the right, both in defence and midfield. In his 17 appearances this season he has scored once and laid on three goals for his team mates leading Slaven Billic to call him up to the national team this month and if he appears against Malta, he will be the youngest player to turn out for Croatia.
There have been inevitable comparisons with Luka Modric as the two both come from the same city and both came through the youth ranks at Dinamo but interestingly he is ranked as having more potential than the Spurs playmaker who Sir Alex has openly stated that he admires.
Dinamo have already rejected a bid from Marseille in the region of €4m Euros for him but Mame is now saying,
“We received offers from England, Italy, France and Germany. United, Everton, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City all asked, but at the time we decided not to sell. We’ll see what happens at the end season.”
I’m guessing he is expecting his worth to rise a little higher!
Obligatory YouTube video:
he looks more like a right winger
Yup but can operate as a wing back