Arsenal are reportedly chasing Austrian centre-back Aleksandr Dragovic but have competition from Inter Milan, Norwich City, Marseille, Roma, Fiorentina, Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen and Stuttgart for his signature.
Arsenal are just one of many teams who have been linked with the talented 21-year-old’s signature, but what can we tell you about his short but eventful career to date.
1. Dragovic was born on the 6th March 1991 to Serbian parents in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
2. Despite his Serbian roots he has played international football for his adopted Austria from under-16s upwards.
3. He has made 14 appearances for the Austrian national side since making his debut as an 18-year-old in 2009, coincidentally against Serbia.
4. He is also a Red Star Belgrade fan.
5. He started his career with Austrian giants, Austria Vienna at the age of six and made his first team debut aged just 17.
6. Dragovic earned a move to Swiss giants FC Basel at the end of the January transfer window in 2001 where he went on to become a starting centre back and win the Swiss championship in his first season at the club.
7. He helped FCB to a Swiss league and cup double in his first full season at the club last year.
8. He played in both of FC Basel’s now infamous ties with Manchester United in last season’s Champions’ League group stage, the 3-3 draw at Old Trafford and the 2-1 win at St-Jakob’s that condemned United to only their third group stage exit in the last 17 years of European Cup competition.
9. He has scored the solitary goal for FC Basel, against Servette FC in October 2011.
10. He has also caused controversy in Switzerland after publically slapping the Swiss defence minister Ueli Maurer several times on his head after the post Cup win celebrations in May, and after initially refusing to apologise made a personal grovelling apology to Maurer at the Swiss Federal Council buildings in Berne.
To put this into perspective it would be like David Luiz slapping William Hague atop his shiny crown.
Despite some people seeing the funny side of the gesture, Xherdan Shaqiri did not.
So would you like the tall, uncompromising, politician slapping Austrian at your club?
image: © _becaro_
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