Aston Villa will complete the signing of Croatian goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic on 1 January after he agreed the terms of a £30,000-a-week four-and-a-half year deal, according to Football Insider.
Villa did not divulge the costs of the transfer when announcing the capture of the 28-year-old international at lunchtime on Friday after he passed a medical with the club.
Football Insider report the total cost of the deal, which runs until the summer of 2023, including fee and wages, is £14million, made of £7million in wages and a further potential £7million fee to be paid to Belgian club Gent.
OPINION
Villa will have no issues securing a work permit for Kalinic. And that says a great deal. The 28-year-old was a key member of the Croatia squad that reached the World Cup final in the summer and delivered a standout performance for his country in their Nations League thriller against England at Wembley last month. His salary is fairly steep by Championship levels, but is par for the course for a player of his pedigree and track record. Villa are ambitious and desperate to return to the Premier League after three seasons in the second tier and they will regard the capture of the 42-times international as integral to their hopes of securing promotion. Kalinic is expected to slot straight into the starting XI when he joins at the beginning of January. Villa are living up to their billing of late, and are scoring goals for fun, but they are shipping far too many at the other end as well. The arrival of Kalinic should go some way to addressing that.