Corriere dello Sport reported that AS Roma have already received an initial positive response from the player himself, who is open to the move and sees himself playing in the Giallorossi colours. Alajbegovic has been told that head coach Gian Piero Gasperini — renowned for developing young attacking players — can offer him something no other interested club can guarantee: a starting place.
Alajbegovic spent this season on loan at RB Salzburg, scoring 11 goals and providing three assists in his first professional campaign. Bayer Leverkusen exercised their €8million buy-back clause in March, meaning he will return to Germany this summer having signed a five-year contract with the German club. Any sale will require a fee of between €25million and €30million.
Former Roma and Bosnia midfielder Miralem Pjanic has been acting as intermediary in the negotiations, visiting Roma's Trigoria training ground with Alajbegovic's father Semin a week ago. The visit accelerated what had previously been a more cautious process of dialogue between the clubs.
Alajbegovic came to wider attention after starring for Bosnia against Italy in a World Cup qualifier that ended in a defeat for the Azzurri. He is ambidextrous, stands 186 centimetres tall and operates primarily as an attacking winger — equally comfortable on either flank, direct in his running and creative in tight spaces. He grew up through the academies of Cologne and Bayer Leverkusen.
Inter, AC Milan and Napoli are all tracking him, making the competition for his signature significant. Bayer Leverkusen are not obliged to sell and had initially indicated a preference to retain him — a position that may shift if Roma or another club meets their valuation before the window opens.
Roma's advantage is real but not decisive. Gasperini can promise game time. Whether Leverkusen can be convinced to let him go immediately after exercising the buy-back is the question the next few weeks will answer.