Real Madrid confirmed the signing of Crotian midfielder Mateo Kovacic on their own website. The club announced that the 21-year-old signed a six-year-contract until June 2021.

After two and a half seasons at Inter Milan, the club broke their promise, which he spoke quite recently. "The club told me, that they won't sell me. I will stay here, I will not leave. This is want I want, and because of that I extended my contract at Inter until 2019", he said to the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

New number 16

"I've just arrived to the biggest club in the word, and it is something very special. ¡Hala Madrid!", the player said on his official press conference, where he got presented by club boss Florentino Pérez. Also the club boss made some words about the new summer signing: "We are presenting a young and fantastic player from a great historic club, Inter Milan​. Kovacic' talent will help us and will make our team and club even better". Mateo Kovacic will wear Lucas Silva's number 16. The Brazilian is set to leave the club for a loan.

Early in January, Kovacic extended his contract at Inter Milan until 2019 and his coach, Roberto Mancini, said that "Inter is proud, that he [Kovacic] decided to stay here and will wear our colours continue. With this deal, Inter is investing in the future and I believe, he has a lot of potential. We are happy, that he is here."

The main reason, why Inter sold Mateo Kovacic, and Xherdan Shaqiri was the UEFA Financial Fairplay. The coach still be optimistic: "What can we do? There are rules, like the Financial Fairplay, and we have to keep the properties. We are sorry, but with the leavings of Kovacic and Shaqiri, we are able to strengthen the team in future", he said.

Only one half year he swapped the colours from black and blue to white. Real have to pay Inter around €35m for the Croatian international. With the talented midfielder coming to Los Blancos, Real have Isco, James Rodriguez, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale now all battling for the position. It will be a tough battle between those players and Rafael Benitez will stand in front of a hard decision, who he wants to play in the next match every week.

His career so far

In 97 appereances for Inter Milan, he scored eight goals and assisted 11 other. Thanks to his good performances for Dinamo Zagreb as a teenager, he was called up to the Croatian national team. After continued success at Inter, he was called into the national team squad  and with his good performances for Inter, he was also allowed to play in the FIFA World Cup 2014 in group A against Brazil, Cameroon and Mexico. Unfortunately for him and the whole team, they were elimated after these three group matches with a 3-1 loss against the host, 0-4 win against Cameroon and another 1-3 loss against Mexico.

This transfer is still questionable, because in Real's midfield is actually no place for a 21-year-old highly-talented player. Yet it is expected what a plan Rafael Benitez might has with his new summer signing.