After three years at Ajax, 26-year-old Croatian defender Josip Šutalo is moving to Lazio on an initial loan deal. Lazio will pay a €2.5 million fee for the loan, a structure necessitated by the club being under UEFA's Financial Fair Play monitoring. The agreement includes an option to make the transfer permanent for an additional €7.5 million, with the total value potentially reaching €12 million with bonuses. It is expected that Šutalo will sign a planned four-year contract in a year, a detail which Italian insiders have confirmed. Several other teams were interested in the defender, including Benfica, which was most frequently mentioned in the media, as well as their rival Porto. Italian clubs Bologna and Parma also showed interest, along with some English clubs from outside the top of the table, but the appeal of Serie A and the size of the club from Rome were ultimately decisive. The defender, who has 37 caps for Croatia, has a current Transfermarkt market value of €12.00m. Ajax originally paid €20.5 million to sign him from Dinamo Zagreb in August 2023, and while his asking price was reportedly as high as €30 million in summer 2025, it had dropped to a reported €12-15 million range by August 2026.