We reported here on The72 last week that newly promoted Aston Villa were ready to consider selling goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic this summer, despite only bringing him in during the January transfer window.
And now, it has been claimed that Lovre Kalinic is attracting interest from France. The Aston Villa ‘keeper is reportedly on the radar of French Ligue 1 outfit Nantes, who are in the market for a new goalkeeper.
The report from 20minutes claims that the French side could look to Kalinic as an option this summer, after he fell down the pecking order at Villa Park shortly after his arrival in the January transfer window, with Jed Steer locking down a place in the starting eleven ahead of the big Croatian. Kalinic only made eight appearances for Villa and he may not make any more with Nantes lurking.
Kalinic was brought in to take the place of Orjan Nyland – who had had a difficult first half of the season in between the sticks for Aston Villa. But, after the return of Steer, he fell to the second choice and an injury only allowed Steer to further nail down a place in Dean Smith’s side.
Prior to joining Villa, Kalinic spent a total of 17 years with Croatian side Hadjuk Split, first joining them at the age of 10. He made his way through the youth academy and made his debut in 2011. From then onwards, Kalinic was the starting goalkeeper for the Croatian outfit, making a total of 130 appearances.
After 17 years in Croatia with his boyhood club, the 28-year-old swapped Croatia for Belgium, when he joined Jupiler Pro League side KAA Gent in January 2017. In his first season in Belgium, he won the best goalkeeper award despite only arriving halfway through the campaign.
Since then, Kalinic was a mainstay in the Gent side, playing 79 times and keeping 29 clean sheets.
