Blackburn Rovers Football Club

• Nickname:Rovers
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Michael Appleton

• Ground:Ewood Park
• Capacity:31367

Rovers closing in on Kalinic

01 Aug 2009 - 11:42:30

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Blackburn Rovers have emerged as the favourites to sign Croatia international striker Nikola Kalinic from Hajduk Split.

The 21-year-old has also been linked with Portsmouth in recent weeks, but Kalinic's agent has suggested that Rovers are in pole position to seal a deal.

Tomislav Erceg told The News: "When we arrived in Portsmouth on Tuesday, they told us to wait until Friday morning.

"We didn't want them to play games with us so we decided to leave straight away for London.

"In the meantime, we received a concrete offer from Blackburn, who were interested since the beginning. So we immediately left London for Blackburn.

"They greeted Kalinic like a true star and they are expecting big things from him this season."

Hajduk president Mate Peros added: "Blackburn was the best one of all the offers we have received to date.

"Very quickly we finished the talks with the club."