All right, might as well have a crack at this. I'm going full Mariner scouting mode. That is to say, Wikipedia national team pages + transfermarkt searches. I assumed we'd be signing someone who is likely 24 years of age or older (ready to step into the team and contribute), who played mainly central attacking mid, who's performed well enough recently that we'd be interested, and who hasn't just moved to a new club or doesn't play for a big club. That got me this list of targets:
- Herolind Shala (Albania)
- Alban Meha (Albania)
- Mario Vrancic (Bosnia)
- Semir Stilic (Bosnia)
- Tino-Sven Susic (Bosnia)
- Marcelinho (Bulgaria)
- Alexandru Maxim (Romania)
- Nicolae Stanciu (Romania)
- Aleksandar Katai (Serbia)
- Josip Ilicic (Slovenia)
- Kevin Kampl (Slovenia)
- Yunus Malli (Turkey)
- Mehmet Ekici (Turkey)
A few of these players are probably well out of our reach, but what the hell. Now, Larson originally said the player has represented his national team, which is currently in the top 30 of the FIFA rankings. In the latest article he makes reference to his previous report, so I'm going to assume this is the same player we're talking about here. National teams from the Balkans currently ranked in the top 30 are Croatia, Turkey, Romania, and Bosnia. So, trimming that list down...
- Mario Vrancic (Bosnia)
- Semir Stilic (Bosnia)
- Tino-Sven Susic (Bosnia)
- Alexandru Maxim (Romania)
- Nicolae Stanciu (Romania)
- Yunus Malli (Turkey)
- Mehmet Ekici (Turkey)
Of these players, Malli has been linked with Tottenham and Stanciu has been linked with a bunch of clubs, so they are both unlikely.
Vrancic has performed well in the German 2nd division, less well in the top flight. Stilic is the only player there currently without a contract; he ripped up the Polish 1st division for a year and a half but didn't do much this past season in Cyprus. Susic is coming off a great year in the Croatian 1st division. Ekici has had two very good seasons in Turkey with Trabzonspor.
Most interesting name here for me is Alexandru Maxim. 26 years old, plays for VfB Stuttgart, best season was 3 years ago with 7 goals and 12 assists in 29 games. Not sure what the situation is there, but his playing time has been decreasing since then, and this year he ended up missing out on the Romanian Euro squad because he wasn't playing regularly enough towards the end of the season. Plus, Stuttgart got relegated to the 2nd division after finishing 17th. Seems like a situation where he might be open to a move, and the club has already been using him less and less. Rates pretty well on WhoScored also, averages well over 1 key pass a game.
Here's the mandatory techno music highlight video. Based on my super amateur scouting, I'm just gonna cross my fingers we're after this guy.