Baljic flies into Milan for talks

Elvir Baljic says he is close to signing a contract with AC Milan, provided the two clubs can agree a fee for the 27-year-old.

It would appear that this Saturday is D-day for the player as he and his agent Dino Pasalic will be in Milan for final negotiations with executives of the Serie A giants, ahead of a potential move to the Italian club.

Baljic, who featured in his country's 2-0 defeat in Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier in Austria, has already announced that he is ready to sign for Fatih Terim's men although earlier this week it seemed that negotiations had reached a dead end.

Since then, Milan's medical staff have announced that the club's Spanish striker José Mari will be out of action until at least January with torn knee ligaments and his injury leaves Milan with just Andriy Shevchenko, Javi Moreno, Filippo Inzaghi and Nigerian teenager Aliyu in attack.

Milan decided to resume negotiations and while the Bosnian international had stressed that it was his aim to win back his place at Real, the Madrilenos are eager to inject cash into the club by offloading some of their unwanted players.

Real would like to recoup some of the 3.5 billion pesetas ($18.7million) they paid for Baljic in 1999 but Milan are believed to be offering somewhere in the region of 2 billion ($10.8million) for the player.

Pasalic is confident the two clubs will reach an agreement over the fee for his client and that Baljic will be a Milan player very soon.