Strahinja Eraković ( sr-Cyrl, Страхиња Ераковић; born 22 January 2001) is a

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

er 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 ...

for Russian club

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

and the Serbia national team.

Club career

Red Star Belgrade

Strahinja Eraković joined Red Star Belgrade in 2010 as a nine-year-old. He played for every youth category for the Belgrade club and was the captain of the Under-19 side. He appeared for the club in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League ...

in matches against

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

. He made his first-team debut for Red Star Belgrade on 1 August 2020 in a Superliga match against

Novi Pazar Novi Pazar ( sr-cyr, Нови Пазар, lit. "New Bazaar"; ) is a city located in the Raška District of southwestern Serbia. As of the 2011 census, the urban area has 66,527 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 100,410 inhabita ...

. Despite being just 19, he quickly became a first-team regular for the champions of Serbia. In his first season with the senior side, he played against

Hoffenheim Hoffenheim () is a village in Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It belongs to the municipality of Sinsheim and, as of 2020, it has a population of 3,191. History The village, settled since prehistoric times, and first mentioned ...

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch language, Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghen ...

and

Slovan Liberec FC Slovan Liberec (), commonly referred to as Slovan Liberec or simply Slovan, is a Czech football club based in the city of Liberec. The club is one of the most successful in the Czech Republic, having won three league titles and the domesti ...

in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. He was a part of the Red Star Belgrade side that won the first league and cup double after a 14-year wait. In the 2021/22 campaign, he became one of the most important players for the team and ranked among the players with most minutes spent on the pitch. He was a first-team regular in European competition as well, playing against

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

Midtjylland The Central Denmark Region ( da, Region Midtjylland), or more directly translated as the Central Jutland Region and sometimes simply Mid Jutland, is an administrative region of Denmark established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish muni ...

and Ludogorets in the Europa League group stage. He captained the side in the away match at Ludogorets. Red Star Belgrade qualified for the competition's knockout stage and Eraković played in both legs as Red Star Belgrade bowed out of the competition with a 4-2 aggregate defeat against

Rangers FC Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fou ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Eraković played as Red Star Belgrade secured back-to-back Superliga and Kup Srbije doubles. At the start of the 2022/23 season, Eraković signed a new contract to remain at Red Star Belgrade until June 2026.

Loan to Grafičar

Eraković spent the 2019/20 season playing for RFK Grafičar, Red Star Belgrade's affiliate club in the Prva liga Srbije, the second tier of Serbian football. Eraković appeared in 21 games and scored two goals for Grafičar.

Zenit Saint Petersburg

On 23 July 2023, Eraković agreed to join Russian champions

on a four-year contract, with the option to extend for another year.

International career

Eraković was selected for all youth national teams of Serbia and was made captain. He was called up for the senior national team by

Dragan Stojković Dragan Stojković ( sr-Cyrl, Драган Стојковић, ; born 3 March 1965), also known by the nickname Piksi (Пикси), is a Serbian former footballer who played as a midfielder, and the current manager of the Serbia national team. Wi ...

and made his debut in a

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

match against Norway at

Rajko Mitić Stadium The Rajko Mitić Stadium ( sr, / , ), previously known as Red Star Stadium ( sr, / ), also known as Marakana ( sr-Cyrl, Маракана), is a multi-use stadium in Belgrade, Serbia which has been the home ground of Red Star Belgrade since ...

. He was a part of the Serbia team that gained promotion to the Nations League Division A. 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, but he did not make an appearance during the tournament.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Serbia's goal tally first.''

Honours

Red Star Belgrade *

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 ...

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 ...

, 2021–22,

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 ...

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,

Zenit Saint Petersburg *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

: 2023–24 * Russian Cup: 2023–24 Individual *

Team of the Season:

Young Player of the Season:

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Erakovic, Strahinja 2001 births Living people Footballers from Belgrade Serbian men's footballers RFK Grafičar Beograd players Red Star Belgrade footballers FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players Serbian First League players Serbian SuperLiga players Russian Premier League players Serbian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Serbia men's international footballers Serbia men's under-21 international footballers Serbia men's youth international footballers Men's association football defenders 2022 FIFA World Cup players