Mateo Kovačić

Mateo Kovačić

Mateo Kovačić (born 6 May 1994 in Linz ) is a Croatian- Austrian football player. Since 2013 he is under contract with Inter Milan.

Club career

Kovačić was born in Linz, where his family refuge from the war in their Croatian homeland. His career as a football player began at LASK Linz, from where he moved to the youth department of Dinamo Zagreb in 2007. From this he made ​​the leap into the professional squad of the Croatian championship record and played his first league match on 20 November 2010, compared Hrvatski Dragovoljac Zagreb. In this game, he also scored his first goal in the equal highest Croatian league, which he was the youngest scorer in the history of the league at this time.

Even in the Champions League came Kovačić despite his young age regularly used. In the season 2011/2012 in a match against Olympique Lyon, he scored his only goal in the competition. Thus he broke with 17 years and 215 days Bojan Krkić from the second- youngest CL- scorers. Peter Ofori - Quaye Only Olympiakos Piraeus in 1997 was younger with 17 years and 195 days.

With Dinamo Kovačić twice won the double, consisting of a league and cup. In 2011, he was also awarded the Hope of the Year Award for best young player of the Croatian league.

On January 31, 2013 Kovačić moved to Italian club Inter Milan. Inter had over Dinamo for 11 million euros. This sum may be increased by bonus payments to 15 million euros. He received the jersey number 10, which had carried the Galatasaray Istanbul impersonated Wesley Sneijder and Lennart Skoglund, Luis Suarez and Lothar Matthäus in front of him.

He made his debut in the 1-3 away defeat against AC Siena. A few months later, in May 2013, he received a San Siro Gentleman Award for Discovery of the Year.

National team career

Kovačić went through all the youth national teams of Croatia and is currently active in the U -21. He made his debut on July 3, 2011 at the U -21 qualifier against Georgia. 2012 Kovačić was first drafted into the senior national team, but did not due to injury used. He made his debut on March 22, 2013 at the World Cup qualifier against Serbia (2-0).

Achievements

Title

• Croatian champion: 2011, 2012
• Croatian Cup: 2011, 2012

Awards

• Croatia's Young Player of the Year: 2011
• Gentleman Revelation of the Year: 2013