Stefan Bajčetić Maquieira ( sr, Стефан Бајчетић, Stefan Bajčetić; born 22 October 2004) is a Spanish 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 defensive midfielder or centre back for club

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Early life

Stefan Bajčetić Maquieira was born on 22 October 2004 in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...

, Galicia. He is the son of the

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 ...

former footballer

Srđan Bajčetić Srđan Bajčetić (; born 7 November 1971) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and the current manager of Celta C - Gran Peña. During his career he played with FK Vojvodina, Celta de Vigo, Red Star Belgrade, S ...

and a Galician mother.

Club career

Bajčetić was a product of the Celta Vigo youth academy, and signed for

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

in December 2020 for £224,000. Bajčetić's progress was rewarded with a new contract in August 2022. He made his professional debut on 27 August, coming on as a substitute in a 9–0 home victory over

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

. Bajcetic made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

debut against Ajax on 13 September as a 94th-minute substitution, replacing Thiago. In doing so, he became Liverpool's youngest-ever player in the Champions League, beating a record previously held by Billy Koumetio. On 9 November 2022, Bajčetić started his first game for Liverpool, in the home win against Derby County in the third round of the

2022–23 EFL Cup The 2022–23 EFL Cup is the 63rd season of the EFL Cup (known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons). The competition is open to all clubs participating in the Premier League and the English Football League. The winner of the competition ...

. On 26 December, as a 79th-minute substitute, Bajcetic scored his first senior goal for Liverpool in their 3–1 victory away to

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 the

2022–23 Premier League The 2022–23 Premier League will be the 31st season of the Premier League, and the 124th season of top-flight English football overall. The provisional fixtures are scheduled to be released on Wednesday 15 June 2022. As of the 2022–23 season, c ...

. Aged , he became the third youngest player to score for Liverpool in the Premier League, behind Michael Owen and Raheem Sterling, and the second youngest Spanish player to score in the Premier League, behind Cesc Fàbregas. In January 2023, Bajčetić's progress was rewarded with a new long-term contract at Anfield. On the field, he continued to progress, starting three consecutive Premier League games against Chelsea,

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 ...

, and local rivals Everton. On 16 February, he was voted January’s Player of the Month by fans. On 21 February, he became the youngest Liverpool player, aged 18 years and 122 days, to start in a Champions League knockout match, which ended in a 2–5 home defeat against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. On 16 March 2023, he announced he would miss the rest of the

2022–23 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 ...

season with an adductor injury. He returned to training on 6 August 2023.

International career

Bajčetić is eligible to represent Spain and Serbia at international level. In 2021, he was called up to the Spain U18 for the

Lafarge Foot Avenir The Lafarge Foot Avenir, also known as ''Tournoi de Limoges'', is a football competition contested by national youth teams (and club youth teams) in Limoges, France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primar ...

tournament by manager Pablo Amo, appearing in all 3 matches as Spain won the tournament. His time with the youth squad was halted by injury in 2023, amidst a impending U21 call up and rumours of a call from the senior team. Bajčetić made his debut for Spain U21s on 8 September 2023, coming on as a substitute in a 6-0 win over

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

Career statistics

References

External links

Profile
at the Liverpool F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bajčetić, Stefan 2004 births Living people Footballers from Vigo Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders RC Celta de Vigo players Liverpool F.C. players Premier League players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Spanish people of Serbian descent