Antoni Charles Sarcevic (born 13 March 1992) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club Stockport County. After being released by

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

, Sarcevic began his senior career with Woodley Sports, where he spent only one season before joining Crewe Alexandra, but struggled to break into the first team and went on loan to

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

in 2010, before making a permanent transfer to them in the next year, but moved to

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side Fleetwood Town in June 2013 for an undisclosed fee. He scored 15 league goals for Fleetwood in 2013–14, he also topped the club's assist charts with nine, and was named in the League Two PFA Team of the Year after his performances for Fleetwood. In January 2017, Sarcevic joined

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

on a free transfer.

Club career

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, Sarcevic was in the youth system of boyhood club

aged seven to 15, before joining the youth system at Woodley Sports in 2008. He made his

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

debut for Woodley in August 2009 and was offered a trial with

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club Blackburn Rovers during the 2009–10 season. Sarcevic was signed by

side Crewe Alexandra for an undisclosed fee in May 2010, on a one-year contract with an option to extend for a further year.

Chester

He was loaned out to

Northern Premier League Division One North The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Division ...

club

in October 2010. After two goals in seven appearances he was recalled to Crewe by

Dario Gradi Dario Gradi, MBE (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-English former amateur football player, coach and manager. He was associated for more than 36 years with Crewe Alexandra, where he was variously manager, director of football and director of the ...

. Impressive in his loan spell, he scored on his Crewe debut on 1 February 2011, the last goal of a 6–2 defeat to Northampton Town. On 23 November 2011 he returned to Chester as a permanent signing. During his first two seasons with Chester, they were promoted twice to the Football Conference, in the process winning the Northern Premier League Premier Division,

Peter Swales Shield The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Division ...

, Conference North and Cheshire Senior Cup. After impressive performances for Chester Sarcevic reportedly attracted interest from football league clubs and won a call up to the England C.

Fleetwood Town

On 26 June 2013

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

signed Antoni Sarcevic for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club as Fleetwood Town beat

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...

3–1. On 23 November Sarcevic scored his first Football League hat-trick in the 5–4 home victory against

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

5–4. His 15th goal of the season was a 75th-minute free-kick in the

play-off final The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

against Burton Albion on 26 May, which won promotion to League One.

Shrewsbury Town

At the end of his contract at Fleetwood, Sarcevic joined fellow League One side Shrewsbury Town on a free transfer in May 2016, signing a two-year deal. He left the club on 9 December 2016, by a mutual consent after agreeing to cancel his contract.

Plymouth Argyle

On 26 January 2017, Sarcevic joined

League 2 The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

on a free transfer. Sarcevic scored on his first start for Plymouth to earn them victory at Cambridge United on 4 February 2017. Due to his passion and consistent performances in the side he has earned the nickname 'Manchester Messi' from the green army.

Bolton Wanderers

On 15 July 2020, Sarcevic joined

side

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

, signing a two-year deal. On 29 August, the club announced that Sarcevic has been named club captain for the forthcoming season. He scored on his competitive debut on 5 September, scoring the equaliser in Bolton's first match of the season, a 1–2 home defeat against

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

in the first round of the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. "Sarce" (as he has been called in Bolton) led the team to a 4–1 victory over Crawley Town on 8 May which secured promotion to Sky Bet League One for the 2021–22 season. After Bolton had a poor run of form in October 2021, Sarcevic was dropped to the bench. It was reported that this caused an argument with Manager

Ian Evatt Ian Ross Evatt (born 19 November 1981) is an English professional football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Bolton Wanderers. Evatt began his career as a central midfielder, but was later converted to a central defender. ...

with both considering their relationship to be irreparable as a result. This apparently caused Sarcevic to accept a move to Stockport County.

Stockport County

On 22 October 2021, Sarcevic joined

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

side Stockport County on a free transfer, with the midfielder signing a contract until 2024. Sarcevic made his league debut for the club a day later on 23 October, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 2–1 loss against Notts County.

International career

Antoni was called up to England C for the first to face

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in a friendly on 5 May 2013. He scored the first goal in the game.

Personal life

He is of Italian and

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also

* * * Old Serbian (disambiguat ...

descent.

Career statistics

Honours

Chester *

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

Premier Division: 2011–12 * Conference North:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

* Cheshire Senior Cup: 2012–13 Fleetwood Town * Football League Two play-offs:

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Stockport County *

: 2021–22 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2013–14 League Two, 2019–20 League Two * Plymouth Argyle Player of the Year: 2019–20 *

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

Team of the Season:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

EFL: "2021 EFL Awards winners announced"
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarcevic, Antoni 1992 births Living people Footballers from Manchester English men's footballers England men's semi-pro international footballers Men's association football midfielders Manchester City F.C. players Stockport Sports F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Chester F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players English people of Italian descent English people of Serbian descent