Mateo Kovačić

Youth career

Kovačić began playing at an early age at the local LASK's academy. In 2007, when Kovačić was 13, he was spotted by scouts from several prominent European clubs, including Ajax, Inter Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich, but his family opted to move to Zagreb instead, where he joined the academy of Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. In 2009, at the age of 15, Kovačić suffered a serious injury. His leg was broken and he could not even stand on it for the first four months after the injury. After a lengthy recovery, he finally returned to the team on 31 May 2010, appearing in the last match of the Croatian under-17 academy league, in a friendly 5–0 win against RNK Split under-17s.

Dinamo Zagreb

Kovačić started training with the club's senior squad under manager, Vahid Halilhodžić, four months later, on 6 October 2010, but continued to appear for the club in academy league matches during October. Later that month, it was reported by the local sports daily, Sportske novosti, that Arsenal's chief scout, Steve Rowley, had arrived in Zagreb to watch him perform in under-17 matches against HNK Cibalia and NK Zagreb. Kovačić had his professional league debut in the 2010–11 Prva HNL away match against Hrvatski Dragovoljac on 20 November 2010, in which he scored Dinamo's fourth goal in their 6–0 win. This made him the youngest goalscorer in the history of the league, at the age of 16 years and 198 days, breaking the record set only a week earlier by Dino Špehar…

Youth career

Kovačić appeared for the Croatia national team at various youth levels, debuting in May 2008 in an under-14 friendly match against Slovakia. Since 2011, he was a regular member of the under-19 and under-21 teams.

Senior career

2012–2018

In August 2012, Kovačić received his first competitive call-up for the Croatian senior team match against Switzerland, but did not play because of injury. Subsequently, he received a call up for 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification matches in March 2013. He made his senior debut in a qualification match against Serbia on 22 March, playing as a central midfielder alongside Luka Modrić, instead of a regular team starter, Ognjen Vukojević. Four days later, he played against Wales at the Liberty Stadium, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 1–2 win. His third match of the campaign came in June, when Croatia faced Scotland in Zagreb and suffered a frustrating defeat as they were unable to score despite a string of good chances. By the end of the qualifiers, Kovačić made two more competitive appearances for Croatia, as Croatia scraped into the FIFA World Cup play-offs having taken only one point from their last four qualifiers. Although he did not participate in the scoreless first leg of the play-off against Iceland in Reykjavík, Kovačić started the second leg between the two teams in Zagreb, making an assist for the team's second goal as they reached the 2014 FIFA World Cup with a 2–0 win on…

Club

As of match played 28 August 2026

International

As of match played 2 July 2026

As of match played 2 July 2026 Scores and results list Croatia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kovačić goal

Kovačić was born in Linz, Austria, to Bosnian Croat parents Stipo and Ružica who had moved there from Zabrđe ahead of the Yugoslav Wars. After moving to Croatia he lived and grew up in Sesvetska Sela within Zagreb. Kovačić is a Catholic and attends church every Sunday. He speaks five languages: Croatian, German, English, Italian and Spanish. In 2017, Kovačić married his longtime girlfriend Izabel Andrijanić. On 12 October 2020, Andrijanić gave birth to their first child, a boy. The child was christened, with the first name Ivan, in July 2021, with Luka Modrić as his godfather. In 2025, they had their second child, a daughter named Luna.