Ante Rukavina

[Thommybhoy]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.24sata.hr/articles/view/39704/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.24sata.hr/articles/view/39704/</a>

translation:
Ante Rukavina has made, with his excellent preformances, big teams from Croatia (Dinamo, Hajduk), lot of teams across Europe interested for him. Several teams from France (including both Olympiques , Lyon and Marseille) sent scouts to watch him with great interest. Last scouts that came to watch him are from Arsenal! They came to watch him in Šibenik-Kamen Ingrad game. Tony Banfield came to Sibenik, Arsenal's scout whose job is to search players in Italy, France, Spain,... Rukavina's manager Siniša Šošo (he is not worthy to spend any words on him, and unfortunately he represents young prodigy) and Pharos Sport agency have thier connection in Dusko Grabovac, former HNS employee and close friend of Arsenal's vice-chairman David Dean.
" I have been talking to Dean for quite some time about Ante. After a while there is again young player that deserves to be talked about. It's too early to say Arsenal's intentions, but they are very interested. Besides, Rukavina is nowhere near 70% caps " told Grabovac to "Vecernji List" (Evening news)

I wrote some time ago about Rukavina here:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.arsenal-mania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26285&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.arsenal-mania.com/forum/view ... c&start=30</a>

And I'll copy/paste it here:
.........
And 3rd story is about big young prospect from new team in first league. His name is Ante Rukavina and plays in attack for Sibenik. I must say he reminds me of a certain Gunner. Just type "Ante Rukavina" in youtube and you can see 2 clip of who am I talking about. His team is at the moment no4 (!!) in our league and they beated Dinamo 2-1. Rukavina scored of course. And in 2 games against Dinamo he scored 3 goals. First game was just between Dinamo-Arsenal and Arsenal-Dinamo games, so I guess somebody from Arsenal saw him score 2 in Maximir. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.prva-hnl.hr/1-tablica.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.prva-hnl.hr/1-tablica.php</a> Remember that they just entered first league and he is the important factor for that.

Latest news from today: He apperently signed for Hajduk, and he joins them on summer 2007! What I simply don't believe because I don't se a point in that move. Even so, Lyon said about a week ago that if that happens thay will buy of his contact with Hajduk, and sign him. His comments were: "You don't say no to Lyon!" But I repeat I don't believe he signed for Hajduk.

 

[liridon]

well, this is nice to hear about that. Yugoslavia had talented players and now ex-yugoslavian republics have many talented players but mostly they cant be recognised from big clubs.

 

[Mostarac]

Re: Ante Rukavina - modest Croatian prodigy

Latest news from today: He apperently signed for Hajduk, and he joins them on summer 2007! What I simply don't believe because I don't se a point in that move. Even so, Lyon said about a week ago that if that happens thay will buy of his contact with Hajduk, and sign him. His comments were: "You don't say no to Lyon!" But I repeat I don't believe he signed for Hajduk.

He is Dalmatian, thats the point :wink: .

 

[Thommybhoy]

Re: Ante Rukavina - modest Croatian prodigy

He is Dalmatian, thats the point :wink: .

But still, it is very strange move IMO.

 

[Mostarac]

Re: Ante Rukavina - modest Croatian prodigy

But still, it is very strange move IMO.

I read a Elvir Islamovic article about Rukavina on UEFA.com recently, and in that article/interview, Rukavina said that if he had to pick between Hajduk or Dinamo, then he would take Hajduk and that he had no rush in getting abroad.

 

[Thommybhoy]

http://www.jutarnji.hr/sport/nogomet/cl ... d,53107.jl

O.K. no this is becoming really big and interesting!! Unfortunately I don't have time to translate it today. But I promise I will untill tomorow 10 A.M. Or if somedoby esle is willing to do it before.

Just to translate in few words:
Banfield: Rukavina will be a player for Arsenal.

 

[Mostarac]

Interesting to see that this scout guy is looking for two defensive players from Italy for us. Wonder who that might be.

 

[Gurgen]

De Rossi :wink:

One can dream eh.

 

[Mostarac]

De Rossi :wink:
One can dream eh.

De Rossi would not be bad at all .

 

[nazo]

Not bad at all?
He would be perfect for us.

 

[Thommybhoy]

http://www.jutarnji.hr/sport/nogomet/clanak/art-2006,12,3,rukavina_banfield,53107.jl

O.K. no this is becoming really big and interesting!! Unfortunately I don't have time to translate it today. But I promise I will untill tomorow 10 A.M. Or if somedoby esle is willing to do it before.

Just to translate in few words:
Banfield: Rukavina will be a player for Arsenal.

As promised here is the translation:
Banfield: Rukavina will be a player for Arsenal

In hotel Bonavia in Rijeka, Croatia recent guest was Arsenal's scout Tony Banfield, who, on Saturday, watched in Sibenik Ante Rukavina's preformance. Connection from Rijeka is, actually, Arsenal's connection with Croatia - the Grabovac brothers.
Dusko is a close friend with David Dean, Arsenal's vice-chairman, and his brother Niksa is one of Croatian football managers with UEFA licence. Even Davor Suker arrived, in 1999, to Arsenal over - Rijeka.
Journalist: Who is Tony Colbert, name that is usualy mentioned under Your picture, on Subicevac (Sibenik's stadium)?
Tony Banfield: I don't know, I have never heard. But it's better that way. I don't need popularity. Neither do I, neither does Arsenal.
Tony Banfield is Englishman married to Italian woman and he lives in Messina. He is an official Arsenal's scout. He kontroles Italian football market, and near football markets, all the way to Greece and Turkey.... In Italy he is searching for two defensive oriented players for Arsenal, but, he is convinced, that everything has changed, and that in the land of defensive football there is no more defensive players. He is very satisfied with the match he saw in Sibenik, where he was on special mission.
T.B.: My boss, Steve Roley, sent me to atch Ante Rukavina. He jumped out of the rest of players with every move he made in this very interested and fun to watch game. I don't agree with those who say that quality of football in Croatian league is on low level. In Italy I could often fell asleep before the end of the game, and here it was interested until the end, although the result was decided a long time before the end (Sibenik-Kamen Ingrad 4-1 - 1 goal by Rukavina, and 3 (!!!) by Kartelo). In the end, Croats are well known as very talented and imagintive players.
Journalist: Your imressions of Rukavina?
T.B.: He's very interesting player, and I will definitly come to see him few more times to make a full image of him. It is realy a pitty that your 1st league football continues all the way in February. Rukavina has some good sides and some bad sides. Those bad sides is mainly his tactical game. FOr example, he should have closed a hole in the centre and his team wouldn't recieve that single goal. He must learn to play without a ball. He has amazing potential and he is definitly a candidate for Arsenal's attack n the future. He remides me a lot of Vucinic from Roma. I will report what I saw to my boos Roley and to manager Arsène Wenger.
Journalist: And Arsenal has, according to majorty of experts and fans, the best striker in the world, Thierry Henry...
T.B.: Henry is a phenomenon. There is no player on this planet like Thierry Henry. There may be someone better, but there is nobody who can be compared to him, beacues Henry can do with the ball things that all of the other players can only dream of.
In the afternoon Tony Banfield went to Udine to see the match Udinese - Reggina...

P.S. once again I mentin that you can see Rukavina videos on www.youtube.com, just type in "Ante Rukavina"
( I just recently found out his nickname was "Thierry Henry from Sibenik" , I guess I'm not the only one who sees some similarities)


About de Rossi:
De Rossi would really be excellent for Arsenal, but I must say I have a feeling that he is watching somebody who is as annonimous in England as Rukavina is. He went to see Udinese - Reggina game. What do you think Mostarac, anybody specific?

 

[Mostarac]

He went to see Udinese - Reggina game. What do you think Mostarac, anybody specific?

Udinese`s Felipe and Zapata, when you mentioned that match, I was certain of it. Two great and young defensive talents, especially Zapata from Colombia is very impressive. Both Zapata and Felipe are central defenders, Felipe can play in several positions too. Felipe`s main strenghts are his speed and positional awareness, his weakness might be his temper sometimes. Both Juventus and Barcelona were rumoured to have shown an interest in this Brazilian last summer. Zapata is already now almost an complete defender, fast, strong and technical, great player. His weakness is probably the fact that he is still a bit inexperienced, but he has been one of Udinese`s best players this season without a doubt. Colbert might have been looking at Pinzi or Obodo aswell, but I doubt it since those two players are not Arsenal quality even though they are not bad for smaller clubs. There are no interesting young defensive players at Reggina right now, the only outstanding talent they have is their impressive striker Bianchi.

Zapata.
Born: Padilla Cauca, 30.09.1986.
Height: 186 cm.
Weight: 78 kg.
Nation: Colombia.
Position: Defender.

Felipe.
Born: Guaratigueta, 31.07.1984.
Height: 188 cm.
Weight: 80 kg.
Nation: Brazil.
Position: Defender.

 

[siddharth]

It's about time we started signing some quality players from Serie A. How about Buffon for a start. ;D

Mostarac , no matter how good zapata and felipe are. I think we are well adequate in the central defense.

 

[Mostarac]

Mostarac , no matter how good zapata and felipe are. I think we are well adequate in the central defense.

Yes, but too many players in one department is never bad as it increases the competition for places. And, having watched both these guys play this season, I can say that both of them are better players than our own Senderos for example.

 

[Gurgen]

Ah yes, this Felipe is an excellent player from what I've seen. Complete player, rate him highly.

 

[Mostarac]

Ah yes, this Felipe is an excellent player from what I've seen. Complete player, rate him highly.

The thing which I admire the most with Felipe is his versatility. He can be used anywhere in defence, and such a player would be very useful for us in our defence.

 

[kooldawg]

i Think Felipe would be a good buy for us, he has the potential to be real good and versatility in the back line is good for our squad depth.

Senderos is a good talent, and Djorou as well, but i'd rather have Felipe as a squad player used in rotation, it might even allow Toure to take a day off occasionally

About Rukavina, so according to the reports, Arsène's after another young striker???

 

[Thommybhoy]

Ante Rukavina announced he has signed for Hajduk, andhe's joining them in Summer 2007. IMO that still doesn't mean that's final, knowing local situation.

 

[YeahBee]

Ante is that a common name? there are two croats in my small village by that name

 

[kooldawg]

i'm guessing its something similar to Anthony, and it does look like a common name.