Mateo Kovačić (; born 6 May 1994) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Chelsea and the Croatia national team. He is usually deployed in a central or box-to-box role, but can play in deeper positions. He also adapted to playing either wide on the left or as an attacking midfielder earlier in his career. Kovačić began his professional career with Dinamo Zagreb at the age of 16, with whom he won two consecutive league titles, before joining Inter Milan in 2013. After the 2014–15 season, he moved to Real Madrid, where he won the 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017–18 Champions Leagues. He joined Chelsea on one-year loan in 2018, signing permanently for the London club at the end of the season. With Chelsea, Kovačić won the 2018–19 Europa League and the 2020–21 Champions League, as well as the Chelsea Player of the Year after the 2019–20 season. A full Croatian international since 2013, Kovačić represented the nation at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, as well as the UEFA Euro 2016 and 2020, reaching the final of the 2018 tournament. He was nicknamed Il Professore (The Professor) by the Italian sports journalists. Club career Youth career Kovačić began playing at an early age at the local LASK Linz's academy. In 2007, when Kovačić was 13, he was spotted by scouts from several prominent European clubs, including Ajax, Inter Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich, but his family opted to move to Zagreb instead, where he joined the academy of Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb. Kovačić suffered a serious injury in 2009 in which his leg was broken, but he returned to the pitch after a lengthy recovery on 31 May 2010, appearing in the last match of the Croatian under-17 academy league, in a friendly 5–0 win against RNK Split under-17s. Dinamo Zagreb Kovačić started training with the club's senior squad under manager, Vahid Halilhodžić, four months later, on 6 October 2010, but continued to appear for the club in academy league matches during October. Later that month, it was reported by the local sports daily, Sportske novosti, that Arsenal's chief scout, Steve Rowley, had arrived in Zagreb to watch him perform in under-17 matches against Cibalia and Zagreb. Kovačić eventually had his professional league debut in the 2010–11 Prva HNL away match against Hrvatski Dragovoljac on 20 November 2010, in which he