Nemanja Matic: 6 ft 4 Serbian Sensation Tracked by Spurs & Sunderland
One of the stars of the Uefa U21 Championships was Serbian midfield playmaker Nemanja Matic who has been attracting plenty of Premier League interest from with Tottenham and Sunderland leading the chase. However, his tournament was prematurely ended after breaking his foot in the 0-0 draw with Italy.
Matic is a central midfield playmaker with an excellent range of passing skills despite his 6 ft 4 stature. He currently plies his trade in the Slovakian top division for MFK Kosice but is widely expected to move this summer with Serie A club Udinese also in the hunt. The 20-year-old was born in Sabac but has obtained both Serbian and Slovakian nationalities.
The midfield schemer began his career with Serbian outfit Kolubara before moving to MFK Kosice in during the 2006/07 season. He had been rejected as a youngster by both Red Star Belgrade and Partizan Belgrade. Matic has made 69 league appearances for the MFK in three seasons and scored 4 goals. His only major honour was the Slovakian Cup won last season. MFK finished 4th in the league, 18 points behind champions Slovan Bratislava.
His performances for his club and for Serbia have led to much interest across Europe in his signature. Allen Bula, the MFK head of football development told Sky Sports, “MFK Kosice have received offers from CSKA Moscow, Genoa and Udinese.”
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“There are also five Premiership clubs which have contacted us and I will have meetings with them this week in Sweden.
“We have agreed with Matic that although we do not want to lose him, we will agree a transfer soon - before we play in the UEFA Europa League so he is not cup-tied.
“Like I said, no offer has been accepted yet.”
The player himself was close to a move to England after earning a trial with Middlesbrough in December, unfortunately the trial was cut short after Matic was called into the senior Serbian squad. Bula himself said at the time, “Even though we don’t want to lose Matic, it is looking more likely he will be playing in the Premiership in January.”
He declared on Kosice’s official website: “We always knew that this player would become a star player in Europe.
“MFK Kosice’s player development programme has shown once again that players, when given the right timeframe, will become star players like Nemanja.”
Matic has made two senior appearances for his country both in friendlies against Poland in December and Cyprus in February and is tipped to become a regular. The talented youngster may well prove to be one of the bargains of the summer for a fee of just £1.5m if one of the interested Premier League clubs can snap him up.
Do you like the look of Nemanja Matic? Is your team in need of a midfield playmaker? Let’s hear your views.
Tags: Aston Villa, Birmingham, Fulham, Middlesbrough, Nemanja Matic, Serbia U21, Sunderland, Tottenham
