Name: Sergej Milinkovic-Savic
Club: Lazio
Date of Birth: 27 February 1995
Position: Central midfield
SERGEJ MILINKOVIC-SAVIC – HIS CAREER SO FAR
Lazio’s 25-year-old midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic must be one of the very last elite players still not playing at one of the biggest European clubs. Of course, this is meant as no disrespect to the Serie A club but it does feel like he would’ve outgrown the team by now. Still, the great Serbian athlete hasn’t been to many other clubs apart from his beloved Lazio throughout his career.
Of course, as is the case for most of the footballers at the very beginning of their careers, Milinkovic-Savic’s first senior steps were taken back home in Serbia. But interestingly enough, even though he is of Serbian descent, he was actually born in Spain, where his father, Nikola, played professional football. His mother was also in the sports world but she was a basketball player instead. During his youth, Sergej played at Sporting Lisbon in Portugal, and later on, between 2002 and as late as 2013, he developed at Grazer AK and Vojvodina.
It was in fact at the latter club that he fully emerged out of his shell, rising through their youth ranks to eventually step into the first-team after winning two consecutive national youth championship titles. Savic penned his professional contract with the club in 2013 and would continue his rapid growth. But this also meant other teams started taking notice of the midfielder and the first to throw him a hook were actually Genk, bringing the youngster to their club in the summer of 2014.
Even though he signed a five-year contract with his new team, he wouldn’t come near to seeing it through as they simply couldn’t hold onto him for too long. Sergej ended up spending a year there instead, recording only 24 games and scoring five goals and assisting one in the process as well. It was a somewhat longer stint than the one at Vojvodina, where he would appear only 16 times with four goals and an assist to his name, but his nomadic career was still in full effect.
In the summer of 2015, it was officially announced that Savic would join Lazio in Serie A, leaving Belgium behind. And this is where things started to slow down a bit. Since then, he’s been playing in Italy and impressing the right people, as can be seen in recurring transfer rumours connecting him to European giants on a yearly basis, but nothing major ended up happening along the way.
As a whole, Savic has already played 206 games for Lazio, scoring 39 goals and assisting a total of 27. Despite his quality that no one can doubt, it still feels his progress and rise have been put on hold for almost half a decade now.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for him next.
TRANSFER LATEST
In recent months, Savic was connected to various Premier League giants as some big transfer news suggested both Chelsea and Manchester United were interested in the 25-year-old midfielder. Of course, Lazio were never going to sell him for cheap and whoever wants to scoop the Serbian player up, they will have to pay a respectable fee to the Italians.
Apart from the Blues and the Red Devils, Tottenham Hotspur were also linked with a move and it seems that, as ever, Savic could be spoiled for choice if he actually decided to leave Lazio this time around. But transfer rumours were always surrounding the 25-year-old and we’ll have to wait and see if this time is going to be any different.
PLAYER PROFILE
Savic is one of the best midfielders currently playing over in Serie A and he shows it regularly on the pitch for Lazio. The 25-year-old is a box-to-box midfielder who likes to operate all over the pitch. If he’s not in his defensive third supporting the backline then he can usually be seen up front, serving as a target-man of sorts to perfectly complement his teammates in the opposition’s box.
He offers an impressive aerial presence and his sense of positioning and exploiting space through clever movement makes him a constant threat going forward. But goals were never exactly the highlight of his incredible player profile. Creation, however, is. His passing range is really impressive and he can combine well with his teammates as well as progress the ball efficiently.
As a whole, it does seem like he’s an elite player and a whole package going both ways, true to his box-to-box nature.