“Mario Pasalic is a player who did well at youth level, but his progress was stalled by injuries. He came back to being what he was in Croatia. The midfielder is considered to be on the same level as Luka Modric, who is one of the best midfielders in the world,” were the words of Adriano Galliani who is the Vice-President of AC Milan in December 2016.
Comparing the 21-year-old with the Real Madrid star might seem exaggerated considering Pasalic has only made seven appearances in Seria A for Milan this season, yet what must be noted is that the youngster is far ahead of his peers judging from his form in the last six games for Vincenzo Montella’s side this season. With the vision and eye for goal of Modric, Pasalic can also be likened to Michael Ballack considering his height, body build and ability to shoot from long range, although all the nice compliments will amount to nothing if the Chelsea player does not raise his game.
Signed from Hadjuk Split for £3m in 2014 aged 19 after scoring an impressive 11 league goals, Pasalic was called up by then Croatian coach Nico Kovac for the World Cup in Brazil that same year before being cut from the final 23 man squad. At Chelsea, Pasalic was then sent on two separate loans to Elche (2014/2015 season) and Monaco (2015/2016 season) where he scored three La Liga goals for Elche in 31 games and three Ligue 1 goals for Monaco in 16 appearances before injuring himself being sidelined for the rest of the season In the process.
This season, the youngster has become a regular in Milan having struggled for game time with rumours circulating he was going to be sent back to parent club Chelsea in the Winter. Having scored once in seven league games, the midfielder has an impressive 88% pass accuracy to match his equally top quality 17 m average pass which has made him indispensable for Montella in recent games.
With Chelsea full of youngsters waiting to take their chance at the club having sent an astonishing 38 youngsters on loan to different clubs this season, it might appear that the Blues will not fight to keep the Croatian who has only 18 months to run in his contract with the club despite making no appearance for them since his signing in 2014.
Antonio Conte might have discovered the winning formula having won 13 straight league games since losing to Arsenal in October, yet that is not enough reason to let the midfielder slip through the grasp of the West London club who saw the likes of Kelvin De Bruyne, Bryan Betrand and Romelu Lukaku all make the move to lesser clubs before rebuilding their damaged stocks.
Chelsea must therefore make haste and try to convince the 21-year-old box-to-box midfielder that his future belongs to Stamford Bridge rather than San Siro, if the club wants to avoid the mistake of the past.
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