Nemanja Motika ( sr-Cyrl, Немања Мотика; born 20 March 2003) 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 winger or

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for Slovenian PrvaLiga club Olimpija Ljubljana. Born in Germany, he represented both Germany and Serbia at youth international level.

Club career

Bayern Munich II

Motika made his professional debut for Bayern Munich II in the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

on 9 May 2021, coming on as a substitute in the 68th minute for Rémy Vita against SpVgg Unterhaching. Four minutes later, he scored his first goal for the club, halving Bayern's deficit to 2–1. The home match finished as a loss with no further goals scored.

Red Star Belgrade

After an impressive half-season at Bayern Munich II, where he scored 15 goals and provided 8 assists for the Martín Demichelis' team, Motika came into the spotlight of big clubs as well as

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

senior team, for which he was subsequently called up to

Julian Nagelsmann Julian Nagelsmann (born 23 July 1987) is a German professional Association football manager, football manager and former Association football player, football player who is the head coach of FC Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich. Prior to managing Baye ...

's squad for the first match in 2022 against Borussia Monchengladbach, but ultimately he did not enter the game. During the winter transfer window, he was the target of both Hamburger SV and

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

among others, but

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

was the most persistent and fastest managing to attract the player's interest. On 2 February 2022, Motika signed a four-year contract with Red Star and took the number 17 shirt on the advice of fellow German footballer Marko Marin.

Olimpija Ljubljana

On 12 June 2023, Motika transferred to Slovenian PrvaLiga champions Olimpija Ljubljana on a free transfer, with Red Star receiving the full transfer fee for future transfers under €1.5 million and an additional 20% of the remaining fee should the transfer exceed this price.

International career

Motika played one match for the Germany national under-16 team in September 2018 against Cyprus. In November 2020, he was called up to train with the Serbia national under-19 team.

Personal life

Motika was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and is of

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. His father hails from the Nišići plateau near

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, and his mother hails from

Vranje Vranje ( sr-Cyrl, Врање, ) is a city in Southern Serbia and the administrative center of the Pčinja District. The municipality of Vranje has a population of 83,524 and its urban area has 60,485 inhabitants. Vranje is the economical, polit ...

Career statistics

Honours

Red Star Belgrade * Serbian SuperLiga: 2021–22 *

Serbian Cup The Serbian Cup ( Serbian: Куп Србије, Kup Srbije) is the national football cup of Serbia. The winner of the competition gets a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round. From 2006 to 2010, the competition was known as the Lav Cup ...

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Motika, Nemanja 2003 births Living people Footballers from Berlin German men's footballers Germany men's youth international footballers Serbia men's youth international footballers Serbia men's under-21 international footballers Serbian men's footballers German people of Serbian descent German people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Men's association football wingers Men's association football forwards FC Bayern Munich II players Red Star Belgrade footballers SC Austria Lustenau players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Serbian SuperLiga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Serbian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Slovenia Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia Serbian people of German descent Serbian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent