Thursday, 14th February, 2013
Promising Croatian starlet Lazar Markovic has poured cold water on talk that he has agreed to join Chelsea in the summer.
The talented Partizan Belgrade youngster was recently spotted in London and admits he spent time at Stamford Bridge – Markovic insists that he has not signed anything though and speculation to the contrary is false.
"I have not signed anything", explained the 18-year-old to Sportski Zurnal, as he sought to dampen the rampant speculation in his homeland.
"It is true that I was in London. I took a trip and I was also at Stamford Bridge.
"I met my international team-mate Branislav Ivanovic and we talked.
"But it is not true that I signed for Chelsea. I met some people at the club, but it wasn’t anything like that.
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"Neither did I sign a pre-contract agreement. There’s nothing."
Markovic is rated as one of the most promising talents in Croatian football, with Partizan Belgrade having locked him down on a contract running until 2016.
The 18-year-old, who prefers to operate as a second striker, played in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League for Partizan Belgrade this season, while he also clocked up eight appearances in the Europa League when the Croatian giants dropped into Europe’s second tier competition.
Markovic has been consistently linked with Chelsea and the club’s sporting director was forced to deny a deal had been done as recently as December, saying: "I swear on my mother that I know nothing about it."
The forward has gone on record as saying that he dreams of turning out for the Blues though.
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