50/76 Mitrović je dao 50 golova na 76 utakmica, Ronaldo je do istog broja golova došao posle 114 mečeva za Portugal It took Mitrović just 76
Football is more of a passion than anything else . I’m not obsessed with statis- tics. It’s always nice when you have good statistics, but football is love, says Aleksandar Mitrović, who went from being a teenager at Partizan to become probably the most popular Serbian footballer today. He played excellently in matches in the UEFA Nations League, but nobody has for- gotten his 90th minute goal against Portugal in Lisbon last November. And how could we not recall that strike, given that the win secured our spot at the World Cup in Qatar?! After scoring three goals in the match against Sweden, he also demonstrated his prowess in the match against Norway. On that oc- casion, he scored the second goal for our national team in the 54 th min- ute and thus stamped Serbia’s tick- et to the A division. “Individual quality isn’t as im- portant now. We look good as a team and that’s how it should be. I believe that we’ve earned the tag of a team that no one would like to play against. Regardless of who’s on the other side, we play the same. We have our game and we stick to it. We compete and we will compete and stive to win,” said Mitrović who, to- gether with Erling Haaland, topped the goal scoring charts of the UEFA Nations League. By scoring his ju- bilee 50 th goal for the national team against Norway, he outdid both Li- onel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo: it took Mitrović just 76 games to score 50 international goals, a feat that was only achieved by Ronaldo after 114 matches for Portugal and by Messi after 107 appearances in an Argentina shirt. This Serbian footballer also shines in the English Premier League, in the shirt of Fulham, where he’s been playing since 2018. He previ- ously played for Newcastle United, Anderlecht, Partizan and Zemun’s Teleoptik. He began his senior ca- reer in 2011, six years after mak- ing his junior debut, and has been a member of Serbia’s national team for more than a decade.
“I entered the football world ear- ly, at the age of 16. You don’t think too much when you’re young; you see things in a different way. I’ve ma- tured. I’ve gone from a boy to being a man and I now view the world differ- ently. I’ve also become a father, and time has played its part,” he said on one occasion, before revealing who he looked up to on his journey in sport. “Every player had someone as their idol. They are now looking at Deci poručuje da vredno rade, da nikada ne odustaju, jer to je jedini način da se stigne do cilja me and that makes me happy. When I was little, my idol was Saša Ilić. He was the role model for every child and fan of Partizan, myself includ- ed. He is one of the reasons I took my first steps in football. He would tell the new kids to work hard and train, to never give up. That’s the on- ly right way.” All fans of football are impatient- ly counting down the days to the start of the World Cup in Qatar, which will run from 20 th November to 18 th De- cember this year. We are waiting for the miraculous Mitar to once again delight us with goals. He once said that hard work pays off, sometimes immediately, sometimes after a few years, because everything pays off in the end. Football is a fair game, says Mitar, and we’re wholeheartedly cheering for both him and football. only right way to achieve their goal He tells children to work hard, to never give up, because that’s the
games to score 50 goals, a feat that was only achieved by Ronaldo after 114 matches for Portugal
Aleksandar Mitrović, footballer Football is a fair game We are waiting impatiently for the footballing wizard that is Mitar, who left both Ronaldo and Messi in his wake, to take to the pitch again, this time in Qatar, with the Serbia national team
Football » Fudbal | 105
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