According to reports from Calcio Mercato, Inter Milan sporting director Piero Auslio has confirmed he’s held talks with Chelsea and Manchester United target Marko Grujic.
The Red Star Belgrade prodigy, who first drew attention as Serbia lifted the U20 World Cup in New Zealand during the summer, has been compared to Chelsea’s towering play-breaker Nemanja Matic due to his similar style of play and lofty 6 foot 3 frame.
Manchester United scouts ran the rule over the 19-year-old during last month’s Belgrade derby, watching him open the scoring in a 3-0 win over FK Rad Beograd with a 30-yard piledriver – although reports of their interest have admittedly waned since.
Chelsea, on the other hand, are widely regarded as the front-runners in the race to sign the central midfielder. Some sources claim they’ve already tabled an opening €4million bid and earlier this week Grujic confirmed interest from the west London outfit, telling reporters; “Nemanja Matic is a friend, he’s Serbian and he has been at Chelsea for over a year. He tells me that they want me. Right now I am at Red Star, we are top of the table and I want to win the title here. I don’t think that I’ll be moving in January, but there’s definitely more of a chance in June.”
But Inter Milan are renowned experts of the Eastern European market – as confirmed by the recent signings of Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Perisic, Stevan Jovetic and Adem Ljajic – and remain relentless in their efforts to sway Grujic towards a San Siro move instead.
Earlier this week, we reported on their planned meeting with Grujic after Serbia’s clash with Slovakia’s U21s on Tuesday night. Although it was not attended by assistant manager Dejan Stankovic – conveniently, Serbia’s most-capped player of all time – as expected, Nerazzurri sporting director Piero Auslio has confirmed the meeting took place whilst revealing the club have also made contact with the teenager’s parents.
As quoted by Calcio Mercato, Auslio said; “I have seen a game, I had the possibility to see him playing live. Grujic is a talented player, I had a meeting, authorized by his club. There are no negotiations going on, we have contacted his family.”