Nikola Milenković ( sr-cyr, Никола Миленковић, ; born 12 October 1997) is a Serbian 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

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 ...

and the Serbia national team.

Club career

Partizan

2015–16 season

Passing the youth categories of

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: **AK Partizan, athletics ** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling ** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo **FK Partizan, association fo ...

, Milenković was loaned to Teleoptik for the 2015–16 season. At the beginning of 2016, he joined the first team of

under coach

Ivan Tomić Ivan Tomić (Serbian Cyrillic: Иван Томић; born 5 January 1976) is a Serbian football manager and former player. Club career After coming through the youth categories of Radnički Beograd, Tomić joined Partizan in the summer of 1993, a ...

and signed a five-year contract, but also stayed with Teleoptik on dual registration until the end of season. Several days after debut for U19 national team, he made his debut for

in a SuperLiga match against

Mladost Lučani Mladost (meaning "youth" in Slavic languages) may refer to: Placenames *Mladost, Sofia, municipality of Sofia, Bulgaria * Mladost, Varna, municipality of Varna, Bulgaria * Mladost, Obrenovac, municipality of city Obrenovac, Serbia. Association fo ...

played on 10 April 2016. He started in a match against Čukarički in round 32 of the same season and received a red card for a brutal foul on

Petar Bojić Petar Bojić (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар Бојић; born 4 September 1991) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Mladost Lučani. Club career Bojić played for youth categories of Sloga Požega, and also spent 2 ...

, which resulted in a suspension for the next four matches. Milenković scored his first senior goal for

in the last fixture of the

2015–16 Serbian SuperLiga The 2015–16 Serbian SuperLiga is the tenth season of the Serbian SuperLiga since its establishment. The season was started on 17 July 2015 and will be finished on 21 May 2016 with a matches of the last round of the play-offs. Partizan are the de ...

, against

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...

, which was the hundredth goal of the club for the season.

2016–17 season

Milenković started new season pairing with

Cédric Gogoua Aboussy Cédric Gogoua Kouamé (born 10 July 1994) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back. Gogoua began his career at Sabé Sports de Bouna, but he did not break through and moved on to Africa Sports in 2010. Four year ...

for the

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...

of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League against

Zagłębie Lubin Zagłębie Lubin S.A. () is a Polish professional football club based in Lubin. Founded in 1945 as ''OMTUR Lubin'', the club competes in the Ekstraklasa. History The football team was founded in 1945 as OMTUR Lubin by local members of the ''Yo ...

. He also started SuperLiga competition in the first fixture match against

OFK Bačka OFK Bačka (Serbian Cyrillic: ОФК Бачка) is a football club based in Bačka Palanka, Serbia. In 2016, the club achieved promotion to the Serbian SuperLiga. It is known as one of the most successful football clubs in Serbia at the all ti ...

before spending the following two rounds on the bench. After several bad results and some injuries of the players in defense, Milenković started playing continuously from the fourth fixture against Javor Ivanjica onwards. He scored his first season goal in a match against

Rad RAD or Rad may refer to: People * Robert Anthony Rad Dougall (born 1951), South African former racing driver * Rad Hourani, Canadian fashion designer and artist * Nickname of Leonardus Rad Kortenhorst (1886–1963), Dutch politician * Radley R ...

, played on 27 August 2016. He also made his

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 ...

debut in the first round match, against

Napredak Kruševac Napredak may refer to: *HKD Napredak, cultural society of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina *FK Napredak Kruševac, Serbian football club *FK Napredak Aleksinac, Serbian football club *FK Napredak Banatska Topola Fudbalski klub Napredak () is a f ...

on 21 September 2016. After

Miroslav Vulićević Miroslav Vulićević (; born 29 May 1985) is a retired Serbian professional footballer who played as a defender. Club career Early years Vulićević began playing football at Kosmet Leposavić, before moving to Bane. He made his debut for their ...

's injury in a

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

match against

Žarkovo Žarkovo ( sr-cyr, Жарково, ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Čukarica. Location and divisions Žarkovo (Greater Žarkovo) is one of the most populous single neighborhoods of B ...

on 25 October 2016, Milenković wore the captain's armbrand. In February 2017, he was listed as one of the 30 best youth footballers in the world by the Italian newspaper

La Gazzetta dello Sport ''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018). History and profile ''La ...

. he scored his third goal for

as a senior in 27 fixture match of the season against

Voždovac Voždovac ( sr-cyr, Вождовац, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has a population of 158,213 inhabitants. The municipality is located in the south-central part of the urban ...

, played on 18 March 2017. On 27 May, in his last match for Partizan, Milenković scored a header against Partizan's biggest rival

Red Star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

which won the game and clinched Partizan's double of the season, winning both the league and cup competitions.

Fiorentina

On 24 May 2017, Partizan president

Milorad Vučelić Milorad Vučelić ( sr-Cyrl, Милорад Вучелић; born 17 June 1948) is a Serbian journalist and businessman. He is the president of FK Partizan, editor-in-chief of '' Večernje novosti'', president of the Partizan Sports Society and ...

confirmed that Milenković would be joining

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

in the summer. The transfer fee was reported as €5.1 million. Milenković made his debut for Fiorentina in 1–0 away victory over

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

on 22 December 2017, having played 84 minutes of the game. During the first few months, Nikola was getting used to his new environment and that's why Viola coach

Stefano Pioli Stefano Pioli (; born 20 October 1965) is an Italian football manager and a former footballer who played as a defender. He is the head coach at Serie A club AC Milan, whom he led to the Serie A title in 2022. Playing career Pioli, a native of ...

didn't often include him in the starting line-up. However, the tragic death of the team captain

Davide Astori Davide Astori (; 7 January 1987 – 4 March 2018) was an Italian professional footballer who played as a central defender. After playing youth football for Pontisola and AC Milan, Astori started his senior career at Serie C clubs Pizzighettone ...

made Pioli change his mind and include Nikola in the starting eleven more often. At the start of 2018–19 Serie A season matchday 2, Milenković scored his first goal at

Stadio Artemio Franchi The Stadio Artemio Franchi is a football stadium in Florence, Italy. It is currently the home of ACF Fiorentina. The old nickname of the stadium was "Comunale." When it was first constructed, it was known as the ''Stadio Giovanni Berta'', after ...

in 6–1 win over

ChievoVerona Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to as ChievoVerona or simply Chievo , is a former professional Italian football club named after and based in Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a ...

. On 20 April 2019 Milenković scored 6th minute opener in 2–1 away defeat against rivals

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

International career

Milenković was a member of the Serbia under-19 team in early 2016. Later the same year, he was called up to the Serbia U20 national squad by coach

Nenad Lalatović Nenad Lalatović (, ; born 22 December 1977) is a Serbian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. He is currently coaching the team FK Radnički Niš, Radnički Niš. Club career Lalatov ...

, and made his debut for the team in a match against

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

. Milenković was called up to the U21 squad by Lalatović in March 2017. He made his first appearance at U21 level on 28 March 2017, in a friendly match against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. Milenković made his debut for the senior national team in a friendly 3–0 loss to

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

on 29 September 2016. In June 2018 Serbian head coach

Mladen Krstajić Mladen Krstajić ( sr-cyr, Младен Крстајић, ; born 4 March 1974) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He represented Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. From Janua ...

included Milenković in the final 23-man squad for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

. He played in all three group stage matches. He is widely considered as the best performer in the World Cup 2018 squad, with 34 successful tackles (the most in the group stage), and some great positional play. In November 2022, he was selected in Serbia's squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

in Qatar. He played in all three group stage matches, against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Serbia finished fourth in the group.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Serbia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Milenković goal''.

Honours

;Partizan *

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League ( sr, Супер лига Србије / Super liga Srbije), referred to as the Mozzart Bet Super League ( sr, Моцарт Бет Супер лига / Mozzart Bet Super liga) for sponsorship reasons, is a Serbian profes ...

: 2016–17 *

: 2015–16, 2016–17

References

External links

Nikola Milenković stats
at utakmica.rs * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Milenkovic, Nikola 1997 births Living people Footballers from Belgrade Association football defenders Serbian footballers Serbia international footballers Serbia youth international footballers Serbia under-21 international footballers FK Teleoptik players FK Partizan players ACF Fiorentina players Serbian SuperLiga players Serie A players Serbian expatriate footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2022 FIFA World Cup players