A new star rises every day in modern football, where teams seem eager to acquire and develop prospects younger and younger every day, and due to their great scouting networks and high resources, signing youngsters has become the new great tendency among the greatest teams in the world.
A country that has been developing great prospects in the past few years is Croatia, as the Balkan nation has produced some pretty great midfielders in the past decade, such as Ivan Rakitic, Luka Modric and more recently Allen Halilovic and Real Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic.
A couple of years ago, another youngster started to catch the attention of every big club in Europe, as the speedy midfielder was turning heads whenever he stepped onto the pitch, so it’s only natural that several scouts started following his progress.
This player is Ante Coric, Dinamo Zagreb’s starlet, who was, according to himself “just a medical away” from signing with Jurgen Klopp and his renewed and reinforced Liverpool team, but eventually he decided to stay with his homeland team to improve his current form and be ready to take the bigger step later in his career.
Coric has been constantly linked with Tottenham and Manchester City as well, but the talented midfielder has reportedly being very interested in joining the Merseyside team, and even if they have a very crowded midfield, they could definitely use the talent of this guy.
Klopp is known for developing young guys from exotic nations and he doesn’t hesitate to take those lambs into the jungle if he feels that they’re ready for the task, so you know Coric could see big minutes for Liverpool if he chooses to sign with the reds this January.
The 19-year-old from Zagreb has often been compared to some players like Luka Modric, as his vision and his amazing passing skills really resemble the likes of one of the best midfielders in the world. Besides, this guy is the youngest player to ever to score a goal in UEFA Europa League, netting a ball at just 17 years and 157 days against Romanian side Astra Giurgiu
Coric currently has scored 12 goals and 18 assists for Dinamo Zagreb so far in his young career, making 87 appearances from 2014 to this day for the Croatian team and is becoming a steady starter after coming off the bench in the first seasons with the blue side.
One of his biggest strengths is his passing skills, as he was first positioned as an attacking midfielder but he can play in the center of the pitch as well. Besides, his dribbling abilities make him a complete nightmare for opposite players, who often get desperate while trying to take the ball away from the ambidextrous youngster.
However, he still has a lot of things to develop in order to succeed in a very much physical tournament as the Premier League, as he’s very skinny and lacks the conditions and strength to face the best defenders in the world.
Coric has been constantly improving his game and he’s been working a lot on his defensive attributes as well, which was the biggest concern about the youngster’s game.