Nikola Milenković

Nikola Milenković (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Миленковић, pronounced [nǐkola milěːŋkoʋitɕ]; born 12 October 1997) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and right-back for Fiorentina and the Serbia national team.

Nikola Milenković
Milenković with Serbia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup
Personal information
Full name Nikola Milenković
Date of birth (1997-10-12) 12 October 1997
Place of birth Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia[1]
Height 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)[2]
Playing position(s) Defender
Club information
Current team
 Fiorentina
Number 4
Youth career
–2015 Partizan
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015–2017 Partizan 36 (3)
2015–2016 → Teleoptik (loan) 13 (0)
2017– Fiorentina 87 (8)
National team‡
2015–2016 Serbia U19 3 (1)
2016 Serbia U20 1 (0)
2017– Serbia U21 9 (0)
2018– Serbia 18 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:03, 2 August 2020 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 17 November 2019

Club career

Partizan

2015–16 season

Passing the youth categories of Partizan, Milenković was loaned to Teleoptik for the 2015–16 season.[3] At the beginning of 2016, he joined the first team of Partizan under coach Ivan Tomić and signed a five-year contract, but also stayed with Teleoptik on dual registration until the end of season.[4] Several days after debut for U19 national team,[5] he made his debut for Partizan in a SuperLiga match against Mladost Lučani played on 10 April 2016.[6] He started in a match against Čukarički in round 32 of the same season and received a red card for a brutal foul on Petar Bojić, which resulted in a suspension for the next four matches.[7] Milenković scored his first senior goal for Partizan in the last fixture of the 2015–16 Serbian SuperLiga, against Vojvodina,[8] which was the hundredth goal of the club for the season.[9]

2016–17 season

Milenković started new season pairing with Cédric Gogoua for the second qualifying round of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League against Zagłębie Lubin. He also started SuperLiga competition in the first fixture match against Bačka Bačka Palanka before spending the following two rounds on the bench. After several bad results and some injuries of the players in defense, Milenković started playing continuously from the fourth fixture against Javor Ivanjica onwards. He scored his first season goal in a match against Rad, played on 27 August 2016.[10] He also made his Serbian Cup debut in the first round match, against Napredak Kruševac on 21 September 2016.[11] After Miroslav Vulićević's injury in a cup match against Žarkovo on 25 October 2016, Milenković wore the captain's armbrand.[12] In February 2017, he was listed as one the 30 best youth footballers in the world by the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.[13] he scored his third goal for Partizan as a senior in 27 fixture match of the season against Voždovac, played on 18 March 2017.[14]

On 27 May, in his last match for Partizan, Milenković scored a header against Partizan's biggest rival Red Star which won the game and clinched Partizan's double of the season, winning both the league and cup competitions.[15]

Fiorentina

On 24 May 2017, Partizan president Milorad Vučelić confirmed that Milenković would be joining Serie A side Fiorentina in the summer.[16] The transfer fee was reported as €5.1 million.[17] Milenković made his debut for Fiorentina in 1–0 away victory over Cagliari on 22 December 2017, having played 84 minutes of the game.[18]

International career

Milenković was a member of the Serbia under-19 team in early 2016.[19] Later the same year, he was called up to the Serbia U20 national squad by coach Nenad Lalatović, and made his debut for the team in a match against Montenegro.[20] Milenković was called up to the U21 squad by Lalatović in March 2017.[21] He made his first appearance at U21 level on 28 March 2017, in a friendly match against Slovakia.[22]

Senior team

Milenković made his international debut for the Serbia national football team in a friendly 3–0 loss to Qatar on 29 September 2016.[23]

In June 2018 Serbian head coach Mladen Krstajić included Milenković in the final 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup.[24] He played on all three group stage matches.[25][26][27] He is widely considered as the best performer in the World Cup 2018 squad, with 34 successful tackles (the most in the group stage), and some great positional play.

Career statistics

Club
As of at the match played 2 August 2020[19]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Continental Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Teleoptik (loan)[1] 2015–16 Serbian League Belgrade 130———130
Partizan 2015–16 Serbian SuperLiga 4100——41
2016–17 3226120—403
Total 3636120—444
Fiorentina 2017–18 Serie A 1601000—170
2018–19 3432000—363
2019–20 3750000—375
Total 87830——908
Career total 136119120—14712

International
As of 17 November 2019[28]
Serbia
YearAppsGoals
2018100
201981
Total181

International goals

Scores and results list Serbia's goal tally first.[29]

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.7 September 2019Red Star Stadium, Belgrade, Serbia Portugal1–22–4UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

Honours
Partizan
gollark: Clearly I must learn CALCULULULUS™ so I can winninate.
gollark: So you have to make it... as hard as possible for your opponent to subtract from it, or something?
gollark: A *calculus* battle game?
gollark: Yes, me too.
gollark: If you *really* don't want to deal with hair, laser head removal I guess.

References
  1. "Milenkovic, Nikola". srbijafudbal.com (in Serbian). Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  2. "Milenković, Nikola". FK Partizan official website (in Serbian). Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  3. ""FUDBAL" number 32 - page 2866" (PDF). Football Association of Serbia (in Serbian). 12 August 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  4. "ZIMSKI PRELAZNI ROK – FK PARTIZAN (18.01. – 12.02.2016.)" (PDF). FK Partizan official website (in Serbian). 18 February 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  5. Никола Миленковић: Живим за деби у Партизану!. Sportski žurnal (in Serbian). 1 April 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  6. "PARTIZAN SPREMAN ZA DERBI Božinov se raspucao, majstorije Ilića presudile Mladosti /VIDEO/". Blic (in Serbian). 10 April 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  7. Миленковићу четири, Јанковићу три утакмице паузе!. Sportski žurnal (in Serbian). 27 April 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  8. "Partizan nemilosrdan - Mihajlović već po navici odlučio; Voša videla koliko je teže kad moraš da napadneš večite (VIDEO)". mozzartsport.com (in Serbian). 21 May 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  9. "Partizan prebacio stotku: Milenković jubilarac". mozzartsport.com (in Serbian). 23 May 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  10. "Partizan – Rad 4:0 (2:0)". FK Partizan official website (in Serbian). 27 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  11. "Partizan – Napredak 3:1 (3:0)". FK Partizan official website (in Serbian). 21 September 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  12. "Žarkovo – Partizan 0:2 (0:0)". FK Partizan official website (in Serbian). 25 October 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  13. "Oni će pokoriti svet: Spisak 30 najboljih mladih fudbalera planete, tu je i jedan iz Partizana". mozzartsport.com (in Serbian). 22 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  14. "Partizan – Voždovac 4:0 (2:0)". FK Partizan official website (in Serbian). 18 March 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  15. "Milenković doneo duplu krunu Partizanu!". B92 (in Serbian). 27 May 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  16. "NADA SE LIGI ŠAMPIONA Vučelić posle titule: Ostaju Đurđević i Leonardo". Blic (in Serbian). 24 May 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  17. "'Milenkovic will join Fiorentina'". football-italia.net. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  18. "Cagliari-Fiorentina 0-1: Decide Babacar. GOL E HIGHLIGHTS". Sky Sports (in Italian). 22 December 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  19. Nikola Milenković at Soccerway
  20. Лалатовићева Србија (селекција до 20 година) боља од Црне Горе у Подгорици – 2:1(0:0). Football Association of Serbia (in Serbian). 13 November 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  21. "Zasluženo: Milenković u reprezentaciji!". mozzartsport.com (in Serbian). 17 March 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  22. Млада репрезентација са промешаним картама у Словачкој – 1:2 (0:0). Football Association of Serbia (in Serbian). 28 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  23. "Qatar - Serbia match report". eurosport.com. 29 September 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  24. "World Cup 2018: All the confirmed squads for this summer's finals in Russia". BBC Sport. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  25. Timothy Abraham (17 June 2018). "Costa Rica 0–1 Serbia". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  26. Matthew Henry (23 June 2018). "Serbia 1–2 Switzerland". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  27. Andrew Das (27 June 2018). "World Cup: Brazil cruises into next round with easy victory". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  28. "Nikola Milenković". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman.
  29. "Tufan, Ozan". National Football Teams.
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