Top Facts about Mateo Kovacic

Mateo Kovacic is an intelligent footballer, he always plays with tact and consideration. When he’s on the field, he seems focused and too eager to reach the ball, sometimes he would surprise everyone with a sudden move and then before you know, you don’t have the ball anymore! Now you can easily understand why the Italian journalists keep on calling him ‘Il Professore’.

Related Article: 

This is a list of top facts about Mateo Kovacic:

If you want to know what made Mateo Kovacic so interested in playing football, what inspired him and some of the top facts you might have never heard before, keep reading!

Mateo Kovacic's Childhood

There’s a bitter fact about Mateo Kovacic's family, about which you will realize their background has a different kind of story; in 1991 his Bosnian-Croatian parents had to escape from their country due to the Yugoslavia war. So they left everything behind, saving their children’s future by migrating to Austria.

3 years later in 6 May 1994, their first child, Mateo, was born. His hometown is one of the largest cities in Austria, called Linz.

Accordingly, Mateo’s father was too busy to notice his son’s talent in football, after all he had to work a lot and earn a living for his family; besides living in a foreign country was enough of a burden on his shoulder to make it even more complicated. Therefore, Mateo’s mother took his dad’s place. She would take him to training sessions and soon enough everyone knew how skilled Mateo is.

With the support of his beloved mother, the young Mateo realized he has a chance to bloom and he should use it wisely and carefully. So with the love he had for football ever since childhood, and also hard work and practicing, he proved everyone his worth.

Another top

fact about Mateo Kovacic 

is related to something that happened to him when he was younger. Well, of course like any other child, he had his own idols, they inspired him and maybe as a child, he wanted to be just like them, prosperous and talented. But some idols fail to remain one’s hero, an inspiration.

The picture above is the young Mateo Kovacic next to Steven Gerrard.

A few years ago

came to visit the football club, where Mateo was training and for that event, he was selected as a ball boy. Suddenly he saw Steven Gerrard walking around the field, Mateo got closer to ask for an autograph but surprisingly, Gerrard didn’t even pay the smallest amount of attention to the poor kid and just left him broken-hearted.

That unfortunate event was a real inspiration to Mateo, he swore that he would work hard enough to become a soccer player even better than Steven Gerrard. And interestingly in 2015, Liverpool offered Mateo to be the replacement of Gerrard but as expected, he refused to play in the club.

Mateo Kovacic's Youth Career

Mateo Kovacic started his youth career by playing for the domestic academy of

. He joined them in 2000 and left the academy for

in 2007. It was a result of his family moving to the capital city of Croatia, Zagreb.

When Mateo was still playing for LASK academy, many scouts from several football clubs watched him play and wanted Mateo to be in their teams; clubs such as Inter Milan,

,

and

. But then the Kovacic family left the city and a different fate was awaiting Mateo.

In 2009 due to suffering an acute injury, he had to stop playing for quite a long time. But then again, after almost a year he came back on the field, glowing inexorably.

Related Article: 

Mateo Kovacic's Professional Career

Mateo Kovacic started playing as a professional footballer in 2010. He began his senior career with Dinamo Zagreb and stayed with them for three seasons, up until 2013.

Kovacic's playing history is rich with some of the greatest football clubs that fans around the world are literally crazy about.

He is best known for his brilliant and exceptional dribbling abilities. Mateo Kovacic is a multiskilled footballer; his style of playing is flexible and as a result, he can play in various positions. This might be his trick for distracting players in other teams, every time surprising them with an unexpected move.

As a matter of fact, Giovanni Trapattoni the former manager, once said that Mateo knows exactly how to deal with any situation in order to find his way through the ball. Trapattoni even called Mateo a ‘raging bull’ on the field.

Mateo Kovacic's market value

is allegedly around €35 million.

Related Article: 

Mateo Kovacic's Club Career

So far, Mateo Kovacic has played for Dinamo Zagreb, Inter Milan,

and

football club.

At Croatian First Football League season 2010-2011, Mateo made his senior league debut. It was a match against

which finished with a 6-0 victory for Dinamo Zagreb. The 16 year old Mateo Kovacic also scored the fourth goal in the same fixture for his team.

Due to the brilliant performance he had at that time, he was introduced as the youngest goalscorer in the history of the league. After that, with the help of Mateo Kovacic, the club won the league title.

This chain of fortunate events made people to notice what a great player Mateo Kovacic really is and how focused he looks like when he is playing on the field, like nothing else in this entire world really matters to him, except for reaching the ball.

During playing for Dinamo Zagreb football club, Kovacic made a lot of contributions that literally changed the history of the team; therefore at the end of 2011 he was announced as the Croatian Football Hope of the Year.

Again he suffered another injury in season 2012-2013, which kept him away from playing at Champions League qualification games. But then again, he returned to the field playing vigorously for the club’s first Champion League match.

In 2013, Mateo joined Inter Milan football club. Because of his great performance at UEFA Champion League season 2012-2013, Mateo Kovacic received a lot of compliments. He was even praised by the former manager of Inter Milan, Andrea Stramaccioni, as he described Mateo a ‘star for the future’. But he wasn’t only called a star; in point of fact, a few months later the ‘Gentleman Revelation of the Year’ was awarded to Mateo Kovacic by Inter Milan fans.

In 2015, Mateo Kovacic unexpectedly was sold to Real Madrid; the manager of Inter Milan, Roberto Mancini, later explained that they lost Kovacic because of UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP). He said that nobody wanted such thing to happen but rules are rules and we have to respect them. In addition to his explanations, Mancini apologized to Inter Milan fans.

It was obvious how much fans loved Kovacic and respected him both as a player and as an individual with a gentle character.

Even the result wasn’t that good for Mateo himself either. Allegedly he missed so many chances of playing when Zinedine Zidane became the manager of the team. He appeared 73 times in Real Madrid and scored only one goal, which happened during 2015-2016 UEFA Champions League. Later on, Real Madrid won the title.

Mateo Kovacic's jersey number in Real Madrid was 16.

Finally Mateo joined Chelsea F.C. on August 2018 and is currently playing for this team. This young man has helped Chelsea’s squad improve ever since he signed his contract with the club. He quickly became one of the most important and valuable players of the team. In fact on August 2020, Mateo Kovacic was announced as the Chelsea Player of the Year.

Mateo Kovacic's salary

is approximately €2.5 million.

Related Article: 

Mateo Kovacic's International Career

Mateo Kovacic joined Croatia national team in 2008, he played at different youth levels including U-14, U-15, U17, U-19 and U-21. But finally in 2013, Mateo Kovacic officially started playing for

national football club at senior level.

A

fact about Mateo Kovacic 

you may want to know is that he first received his call-up for a fixture against

in 2012, so he could’ve started his senior career at Croatia national team one year earlier; but just as you probably guess, there was indeed a problem. Kovacic was suffering an injury, which caused a delay in his career, therefore he had to say no to playing for a few while until he had gotten fully recovered.

But then Mateo Kovacic made his senior debut in 2014

qualification games against

. And when Croatia was qualified to play in 2014 FIFA World Cup, it was confirmed that Mateo would be playing with the team as well.

On his 20th appearance for Croatia in 2015, Mateo Kovacic scored his first international goal. Back then he was 21 years old. In that match, Croatia played against

and defeated them perfectly with a 4-0 win.

Once more, Mateo Kovacic was chosen to play at the 2018 FIFA World Cup alongside his country’s team. Croatia was playing very well until the very last seconds of the final, but at the end, was defeated by

with a 4-2 victory.

Well any player might have some terrible moments in their entire career, this is a sure thing; but things get a little bit ugly when you’re naturally a great player with brilliant abilities. Well, a similar situation happened to Mateo Kovacic too in the Nations League season 2020-2021.

In a fixture against

, an opening goal was scored by Sweden because of only one mistake that Kovacic made, therefore Croatia was beaten with the result of 2-1. Everyone started criticizing Mateo and blaming him for playing very poorly.

Related Article: 

Mateo Kovacic's Love Life

The only woman in Mateo Kovacic's life is the gorgeous Izabel Andrijanic. There’s no information about any other girl before Izabel that Mateo used to date with. This fact indicates the length of these love birds’ relationship.

Mateo and Izabel have been dating for several years; it is about the evolution of a friendship and becoming lovers. And finally just as you probably expect, in 2017 Mateo Kovacic and the beautiful Izabel Andrijanic made it official and tied the knot. Mateo informed us by posting a picture of Izabel and himself in a wedding car on their way to St. Antunas Church, which is located in the city of Zagreb.

Actually it is noteworthy to bring up a

fact about Mateo Kovacic

, regarding the way he met Izabel Andrijanic for the first time. A few years ago, Mateo was an altar boy in church and Izabel was a member of a choir group, so their path got crossed in that church and immediately they built a connection.

Izabel was born in 17 December 1994 and just like her husband, she is also from Croatia. The stunning couple have a one year old son named Ivan, who was born in 12 October 2020. And this is how the bond between the two of them got even stronger than ever. Actually the news of their firstborn child was a total surprise to everyone since they didn’t talk about it anywhere with anyone.

And honestly, who can blame them? These are the most precious and personal moments that usually don’t happen that much often in an individual’s life. So some things better be kept away from everyone except for the ones that truly accompany you with their love and genuine support.

As a matter of fact, Kovacic sisters, Jenna and Katarina, come off as the biggest fans of the young couple. At least in the pictures, they seem to spend a lot of time with each other, hanging out and having loads of fun. There is a connection which cannot be pulled to pieces easily, it’s beyond what words could describe.

Related Article: 

Mateo Kovacic's Social Media

Social media is at the same time the smartest and the easiest way to connect with people, especially when you’re a celebrity.

Like the majority of people, Mateo shares special moments of both his personal and his career life on the Internet.

Mateo Kovacic's social

media

is only limited to his

with more than 4.1 followers.

Despite the fact about Mateo Kovacic that his favorite website is Twitter, he doesn’t have any Twitter account yet.

Related Article: 

More Details about Mateo Kovacic

And now let’s look into some random facts about Mateo Kovacic, which might be interesting to know.

• Full Name:

  Mateo Kovačić

• Nickname:

  The Kove, The Professor

• Height:

  1.76 m

• Weight:

  80 kg

• Position:

  Central Midfield

Mateo Kovacic's mother is named Ruzica Kovacic and his father is Stipo Kovacic. Mateo has two younger sisters named Jelena and Katarina. Jelena was born in 1996 and Katarina, who is the youngest child among her siblings, was born in 2001.

Being a faithful Roman Catholic is another fact about Mateo Kovacic. He considers attending church on Sundays a duty to himself. Actually, he carries his faith everywhere with him. Before any match, he finds it necessary to pray. In point of fact, he wears two shin guards for every fixture he plays in. One containing a celestial message and the other one with a picture of St. Anthony of Padua.

Do you want to know another top fact about Mateo Kovacic? Well, the Croatian footballer has proved that he isn’t only good at playing football, but also is a genius when it comes to learning new languages. In other words, Mateo speaks five different languages! Yes, that’s right! The languages Mateo Kovacic can speak fluently include German, Italian, Spanish, English and of course, Croatian.

Mateo Kovacic's jersey number

is 17. His favorite sports team is Real Madrid. Considering his birth date, his zodiac sign is Taurus. He loves white between other colors and rose between flowers. Mateo’s ideal footballers are Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Mateo Kovacic's net worth

is said to be $13 million.

READ MORE:

Follow 

 for the