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Here's a surprise: Italy plays Croatia during the international break, an Italian club gets linked to one of Croatia's best up and coming players. In this instance, Juventus — shocker, right? — is being linked to 23-year-old Croatian striker Andrej Kramaric, who is currently scoring goals like a crazy person for HNK Rijeka in his homeland.
And you may be asking yourself, "Another striker?" Yeah, according to reports, another striker. Maybe.
To the oracle of all things transfer gossip and rumors, otherwise known as Gianluca Di Marzio:
Andrej Kramaric is one of the hottest names on the transfer market. The Croatian striker was born in 1991 and currently plays for Rijeka- he's scoring at a very impressive rate in fact he has more goals (29) than games played between club and national team this season. There are many suitors for his services, including Chelsea (the club most interested) as well as Stoke City, Borussia M'Gladbach and in Italy Fiorentina, Sampdoria and the two clubs in Milano.
Just you wait! There's more!
While these clubs have made approaches, none has taken as serious a step as Juventus has in recent days. The bianconeri have made concrete contacts with the player's father as well as Rijeka to reach agreements. They supposedly already have an agreement in principle with the player but there is distance between the two clubs: Rijeka is asking for 10 million euro, but before Juventus makes such an investment they want to be totally convinced of the player's quality. [...] Juventus doesn't want to spend more than 6 million euros plus bonuses, but they are open to negotiating.
Ha ha! Take that ... Stoke! Take that ... Sampdoria! Atalanta have also been looking into the striker, so chalk up another Italian club who are interested in signing the Croatian goal machine.
(Stoke? Seriously, though, how did they get thrown in there?)
I'll just go ahead and throw out what Mr. Kramaric has averaged nearly a goal a game — 37 in 38 matches — since moving to HNK Rijeka. It's made the British press go absolutely gaga over him, linking him to Chelsea every chance they can get over the last couple of days. Kramaric earned his first senior squad cap with Croatia earlier this season, earning his first cap in a friendly against Malta in early September.
And wouldn't it be a classic Juventus negotiation if they trie to low-ball a club in an attempt to sign a player they want? Well, yeah. It wouldn't be the first time, it won't be the last, so let's just sit here and wait to see if Juve do anything at all.
