After a wide variety of reports linking Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to Manchester United, Juventus, and Real Madrid, calciomercato.com now reports that Real’s Spanish rivals have entered the race for the young Serbian midfielders signature.

As Mundo Deportivo explains, the interest in the player is the consequences of the “Griezmann effect”: having missed out on the arrival of the Frenchman who has decided to remain at Atletico Madrid, Barcelona now has 100 million + to spend on the market, and one of the biggest, and first targets on their radar is Milinkovic-Savic.

Starting against Costa Rica in an eventual 1-0 victory, Milinkovic played an important role in helping the Serbians dominate play and feel confident moving forward:

“60 touches of the ball, a 66% pass success percentage (23/38 passes), a 50% aerial duel percentage (4/8), an 80% dribbling success percentage (4/5), a 67% through ball completion percentage (2/3), a 67% tackle success rate (2/3), 4 clearances, 3 key passes, no shots on target (2 off-target), and 1 bicycle-kick attempt (deemed wrongly offside)” -Steven Moore

This has had a positive impact on possible suitors, depicted by two of the biggest teams in the world (Real Madrid and Barcelona) setting their eyes on the player. It will be interesting to see what Barcelona has to offer, but for now, we wait.