Few players in world football have a trophy cabinet to rival Mateo Kovacic.
When Manchester City used to sign ambitious, promising talents and making them world-class, they are now signing experienced winners. Mateo Kovacic falls into the latter category, with four Champions League medals and one Europa League, plus three Club World Cups and three UEFA Super Cups.
He has represented Croatia in five major tournaments, taking home a silver medal at the 2018 World Cup, and has won four league titles across his impressive career.
Kovacic might not be the most eye-catching signing to kick-start the summer, but he's certainly an impressive one - and he could be exactly what City need right now.
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With reports in Spain emerging that Ilkay Gundogan may have chosen Barcelona over a renewal at City, Pep Guardiola is in need of another experienced midfielder. One who can play defensive if needed, go forward on occasion, and who can generally read a game and control the tempo.
Gundogan mastered the Guardiola system early on, and has survived the arrivals of plenty of other central and wide midfielders to keep his place until the end. Scoring six goals in his last seven games of the season, plus adding two assists, would be a fitting way to sign off if he has played his final game. So will lifting the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies.
When City were discussing replacements, Jude Bellingham will have been a standout choice, but his heart appeared set on Real Madrid. Then, they could go out and spend tens of millions, if not hundreds, on another midfielder - although who is on a par with Gundogan, and crucially, available this summer.
In Kovacic, City have probably found a good solution. His £25m fee, plus £5m in add-ons, is decent value for a four-time European Champion. At 29, Kovacic will give City three or four years, by which time there will surely have been a more long-term midfield signing available.
City are also determined to reach the next step. They have won the Champions League despite having only one Champions League winner in their squad before they travelled to Istanbul - Scott Carson. However brilliant this squad is, they don't have the experience of defending a European Cup. Nor do they know what playing in the Club World Cup or Super Cup are like.
Those two competitions may be derided in some quarters, but are on the chairman's list of objectives next summer, and would underline City's ambitions to become a force in global football and not just England. Kovacic was part of the Real Madrid side who won the Champions League three years in a row between 2016 and 2018, and he holds two Club World Cups and two Super Cups with the Spanish side, plus one apiece after helping Chelsea win the Champions League in 2021.
In fact, his two-year spell at Inter and his first year at Chelsea are the only three seasons in his career he has not lifted a major trophy. If City are losing a serial winner in Gundogan, they are replacing him with another in Kovacic.
When it comes to goals and assists throughout his club career, Kovacic does trail Gundogan with seven appearances per goal contribution to Gundogan's three. Although Kovacic averages a trophy (excluding Charity Shields) every 28 games in comparison to 39 for Gundogan.
And Kovacic is in good company last season with the most ball carries from central midfielders in the Premier League last season with 20.4 per 90 minutes. That's just behind Rodri's 21.6 and narrowly ahead of Bernardo Silva's 20.2. Guardiola-educated midfielder Thiago Alcantara was next on 19.6.
So while Kovacic won't have the excitement factor of Bellingham, and while fans will obviously prefer to keep Gundogan, he will offer something that will help take City to their next level, as well as filling the hole potentially left by someone as influential as Gundogan.
