An ex-Yugoslav Atleti

Atlético has announced so far a single signing looking ahead to next season. It's about the Croatian goalkeeper Ivo Grbic, 24, who comes from the Zagreb Lokomotiva of his country and comes with the task of filling in for Adam in the role of understudy for Oblak. Is he fourth Croatian-born player who plays for Atlético throughout its history. The pioneer was Mandzukic, who came to the mattress team in the 2014-15 season from Bayern Munich and left the following year for Juventus after play 43 games and score 20 goals between all competitions. Then came Vrsaljko (as he is currently a member of the squad, his case is explained below) and the other natural player from this country who has played for Atlético is Kalinic. He joined the mattress set at the start of the 2018-19 season from Milan and throughout the campaign participated in 24 games scoring four goals. This year he has been on loan to Roma, but will not continue in Italy and is waiting to get the freedom letter.

The arrival of Grbic confirms the commitment of the rojiblanco club for the players of the former Yugoslavia, as shown by the composition of its current staff, in which there are up to five members of the staff who come from this former European republic. Besides him, they were already on the squad Oblak (Slovenia), Savic (Montenegro), Saponjic (Serbia) and the aforementioned Vrsaljko (Croatia). This nucleus constitutes approximately a quarter of Simeone's staff for the next course. In total there are four different nationalities and only one is repeated, the Croatian.

Oblak has completed his sixth season at the club, with which he has played 257 games in which he has conceded 176 games. He is indisputable for Simeone and has established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best.

Savic arrived in the 2015-16 season from Fiorentina in exchange for 12 million euros plus Mario Suárez and in this period he has participated in 160 games. Despite not being a starter for the Argentine coach, he is one of the important players of Cholo.

Saponjic joined the club this season from Benfica, but he has had a residual role in the team, since he has only been present in three games (two in LaLiga and one in Copa del Rey) in which has totaled 64 minutes. He has been the last striker in the rotation and on many occasions he has not even entered the squad. A way out is likely, either as transferred or detaching from it permanently.

Finally, Vrsaljko was placed under Simeone's orders in the 2016-17 academic year after arriving from Sassuolo and he has never managed to consolidate himself in the team. After being part of the staff for two seasons in which played 54 games among all competitions, last season he went on loan to Inter Milan, where he was seriously injured in February and returned to Atlético. This campaign was maintained in the entity, but between recovering from that injury and the surgery he underwent in May to remove the surgical material from that intervention, has barely been able to play, jumping on the grass only in seven games, totaling 482 minutes.

Almost twenty players throughout history

Beyond the former Yugoslavs who are part of Atlético today, the club has regularly had players from this area on its squads. Specific, have been 18 the players born in this former republic who have played in the state. More than half come from Serbia (10): Arangelovich, Lukic, Pantic, Paunovic, Tomic, Jugovic, Njegus, Stankovic, Kezman and Saponjic. Then Croatia follows, with four: Mandzukic, Vrsaljko, Kalinic and Grbic. Then the most represented has been Bosnia-Herzegovina, with two: Bogdanovic and Hibic. And with a single player are Slovenia (Oblak) and Montenegro (Savic).