Matija Sarkic ( cnr, Матија Шаркић, Matija Šarkić; born 23 July 1997) is a 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for club

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

. Born in England, he represents the Montenegro national team. Sarkic came through the academy of

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

before signing with

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

in 2015. He spent time on loan at

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, for whom he made his

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

debut,

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

clubs Stratford Town and

Havant & Waterlooville Havant & Waterlooville Football Club is a professional football club based in Havant, Hampshire, England. The club participates in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football, after relegation from the National League in the 20 ...

, and

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

, before moving on to

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

in 2020. He then joined

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

and

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

on loan. His loan spell with Birmingham City was cut short due to injury in January 2022. He was born in England to a Montenegrin father and English mother, and represented Montenegro at youth level before making his debut for the senior national team in November 2019.

Club career

Aston Villa

Sarkic graduated from the youth academy of Belgian club

before signing a three-year contract with English club

on 1 September 2015. He was the

for Villa's under-21 team who reached the Division Two play-off final in the 2015–16 season. In April 2017, he was named on the bench for a league match against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

as cover for Sam Johnstone following an injury to Mark Bunn. Sarkic joined

on 31 August 2017 on a season-long

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

. In December 2018, he joined Stratford Town on a youth loan. On 26 June 2019, Sarkic signed for

club

on what was intended to be a season-long loan, but he was recalled by Aston Villa on 3 January 2020, as their first-choice goalkeeper

Tom Heaton Thomas David Heaton (born 15 April 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Manchester United. Heaton began his career in the Manchester United academy but was unable to break into the first team and sp ...

had suffered a knee injury. Sarkic was offered a contract extension at Aston Villa in 2020 but turned down the offer to look for first-team opportunities elsewhere, having seen experienced 'keeper

Pepe Reina José Manuel "Pepe" Reina Páez (; born 31 August 1982) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Villarreal. The son of famed Barcelona and Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Miguel Reina, Pepe Reina began his ca ...

brought in as cover for the injured Heaton. Sarkic was formally released by Aston Villa at the end of the 2019–20 season.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Sarkic signed for Villa's

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 ...

rivals

on 27 July 2020 on a three-year contract.

Shrewsbury Town (loan)

On 2 September 2020, Sarkic joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

on a season-long loan. He made his debut on 12 September, starting in a goalless draw away at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Birmingham City (loan)

Sarkic joined

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club

on 26 July 2021 on loan for the season. With previous first-choice goalkeeper Neil Etheridge still recovering from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Sarkic started the opening-day fixture away to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

and kept a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

as Birmingham won 1–0. He retained his place in the starting eleven even after Etheridge's return to fitness, kept ten clean sheets, and missed only one of Birmingham's 24 league matches. Near the end of what proved to be his last appearance, on 2 January 2022, he dislocated a shoulder throwing the ball out to a defender. The injury required surgery which would keep him out for the rest of the season, and he returned to his parent club for treatment and rehabilitation. Despite only being at the club for the first half of the season, he was voted Birmingham City's Player of the Season for 2021–22.

Return to Wolves

Although Wolverhampton Wanderers' goalkeeping coach, Tony Roberts, thought Sarkic's progress would be better served by playing regularly on another loan, he signed a new three-year contract, and technical director

Scott Sellars Scott Sellars (born 27 November 1965) is an ex English football coach and former professional footballer who is ex Technical Director at Wolverhampton Wanderers. As a player, he was a winger who made more than 500 appearances, notably playing ...

said that he would remain at the club as backup and competition for

José Sá José Pedro Malheiro de Sá (; born 17 January 1993) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Portugal national team. He started his career with Marítimo B, mak ...

. He made his first-team debut on 23 August 2022, in the EFL Cup second-round 2–1 win against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

Stoke City (loan)

On 25 January 2023 Sarkic joined Championship club

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2022–23 season. Sarkic took over from Jack Bonham as first choice keeper until he suffered injury against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on 4 March 2023. He returned from injury on the final day of the season at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

. In July 2023, Stoke agreed a fee with Wolves for Sarkic but were unable to agree personal terms and they signed

Mark Travers Mark Travers (born 18 May 1999) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club AFC Bournemouth. He has represented the Republic of Ireland at youth international level up until under-21 level as well as the Republic o ...

instead.

Millwall

Sarkic joined

on 3 August 2023 for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut on 5 August in a 1–0-win over

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

away.

International career

Sarkic represented Montenegro U17 at the

2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the twelfth edition of UEFA's European Under-17 Football Championship since the re-organising of age group competitions in 2002. Slovakia were hosts of the tournament with games taking place at four ...

. He won the bronze medal at the 2017

Valeri Lobanovsky Memorial Tournament Valeri Lobanovsky Memorial Tournament ( uk, Турнір Пам'яті Валерія Лобановського) is an international football tournament established in honour and memory of Valeri Lobanovsky since his death on 13 May 2002, hence th ...

. On 19 November 2019, he made his debut for the Montenegrin senior team under coach

Faruk Hadžibegić Faruk Hadžibegić (; born 7 October 1957) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. Club career During his career, Hadžibegić played for hometown club Sarajev ...

in a 2–0 friendly win against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. Sarkic made his first competitive appearance for his country in a 2022 World Cup qualifier away to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, who won 4–0.

Personal life

Sarkic was born in England, in

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

, Lincolnshire. His father, Bojan Šarkić, is a Montenegrin diplomat who, as of October 2017, was the country's ambassador to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. He previously served as ambassador to the United Kingdom and to Belgium. His mother, Natalie Šarkić-Todd, works at a European media network. Matija has a twin brother

Oliver Sarkic Oliver Sarkic ( cnr, Оливер Шаркић, Oliver Šarkić; born 23 July 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Dečić. Born in England, he represented Montenegro at youth level. He came through the aca ...

with whom he played during his spell at Anderlecht.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Aston Villa U23s * Premier League Cup: 2017–18 Individual * Birmingham City Player of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkic, Matija 1997 births Living people Footballers from Grimsby English men's footballers Montenegrin men's footballers Montenegro men's youth international footballers Montenegro men's under-21 international footballers Montenegro men's international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Aston Villa F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Stratford Town F.C. players Havant & Waterlooville F.C. players Livingston F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Southern Football League players National League (English football) players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players English people of Montenegrin descent Montenegrin people of English descent