Mateo Kovacic’s future appears to be in Serie A and Roma have leaped to the front of the queue for the Real Madrid midfielder, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, who report that Kovacic has agreed a deal in principle to join I Giallorossi on loan for the 2016-17 season.

It is expected that Roma sporting director Walter Sabatini will travel to Madrid this week to hammer out the fine print on the deal after the departure of Miralem Pjanic to Serie A rivals Juventus.

Kovacic was signed last summer on the orders of former Real manager Rafa Benítez to add a bit of steel to the midfield but he failed to nail down a regular place under the Spaniard and practically disappeared in the second half of the season after Zinedine Zidane took the reins at the Bernabéu. Kovacic cost Real Madrid 30 million euros from Inter Milan but the Croatia international played just over 1,000 minutes throughout 2015-16 in 25 appearances.