Aleksandar Dragović ( sr-cyr, Александар Драговић, ; born 6 March 1991) is an Austrian 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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

and the Austria national team. He is well known for his performances as a tough-tackling centre-back.

Club career

Austria Wien

Dragović started his career by playing in the youth teams of Austrian giants

and started playing for their B-squad in 2007. In summer 2009 he advanced to their first team, for whom he played 66 championship games. There were also 15 games in the Europa League and 10 games in the Austrian Cup, which he won with Austria in 2009.

Basel

On 1 February 2011,

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

club

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

announced signing Dragović on a four-and-a-half-year contract. He joined Basel's first team during the winter break of their 2011–12 season under head coach

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, who is the head coach of Belgian Pro League club KRC Genk. Playing career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to S ...

. Dragović played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 12 February 2011 as Basel won 3–0 against

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. It is the oldest football club in continental Europe after Kjøbenhavns Boldklub. The tea ...

. He was in the starting eleven of every match until the end of the

2010–11 Swiss Super League The 2010–11 Swiss Super League was the 114th season of top-tier football in Switzerland. It began on 17 July 2010 and ended on 25 May 2011. The league comprised ten teams. FC Basel successfully defended their league title, maintaining a one-p ...

season and Dragović won the Swiss Championship title with Basel. To the beginning of their 2011–12 season season Dragović was member of the Basel team that won the 2011 Uhrencup, beating both

Hertha Berlin Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football, following relegation from t ...

3–0 and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

2–1 to lead the table on goal difference above Young Boys. The team entered the

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa Lea ...

in the group stage. On 7 December 2011, during the Champions League group C match at home in the

Dragović helped Basel defeat

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

to make his team become the first Swiss club to advance to the knockout stage of a Champions League. Basel won the match 2–1, sending United out of the Champions league. But in the round of 16, despite a 1–0 home win against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, it was the German team who advanced to the next round. Dragović scored his first league goal for his new club on 1 October 2011 in the 3–0 home win against

Servette FC Servette FC is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Geneva, founded in March 1890 with rugby as its first sporting activity, and named after the Geneva district of the same name. The football section was created on ...

. At the end of the 2011–12 season he won the

Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

with his new club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

Championship title with 20 points advantage. The team won the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, winning the final 4–2 in a penalty shootout against

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

. Basel had started in the

2012–13 UEFA Champions League The 2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was p ...

in the qualifying rounds. But were knocked out of the competition by

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

in the play-off round. They then continued in the

2012–13 UEFA Europa League The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Amsterdam Are ...

group stage. Ending the group in second position, Basel continued in the knockout phase. Dragović scored a goal in the second leg of quarter-final matches against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, whom they beat 4–1 on penalties after a 4–4 aggregate draw to progress to the semi-finals. In the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

, Basel were matched against the reigning

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

holders Chelsea. Chelsea won both games advancing 5–2 on aggregate, eventually winning the competition. Basel played a total of 20 European matches that season. Dragović missed solely the second leg of the semi-final at

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in ...

due to a yellow card suspension, but had played in all the other European ties. In the 2012–13 domestic championship Dragović played in 32 of the 36 games and he scored three goals. In the away game in the

Stade de Genève Stade de Genève (Stadium of Geneva), also called Stade de la Praille, is a stadium in Lancy, Canton of Geneva. It has a capacity of 30,084. Overview The stadium was completed in 2003 by Implenia, Zschokke Construction S.A. after nearly three y ...

on 3 March 2013 Dragović scored his team's first goal after Valentin Stocker played a pass from the bye-line backwards into the centre and Dragović slotted home from short range. After

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

had equalised, Dragović headed home a corner, taken by team captain Alex Frei, to the 2–1 final score. Celebrating his goal, Dragović raised his arm in gesture. But referee

Sascha Amhof Sascha Amhof (born 4 March 1980) is a Swiss professional football referee. He has been a full international for FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the internatio ...

understood this as rude gesture against the Servette fans and showed the scorer a yellow card. Because this was his second card in the game, Dragović was dismissed. His third goal of the season was ten matchdays later in the home game in the

as Basel won 2–0 against the same opponent, Servette. At the end of the 2012–13 league season he won the Championship title with the team. In the

2012–13 Swiss Cup The 2012–13 Swiss Cup was the 88th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition commenced on 14 September 2012 with the first game of Round 1 and ended on 20 May 2013 with the Final. The winners of the competition, Gr ...

Basel reached the final, but were runners up behind Grasshopper Club, being defeated 4–3 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time. On 26 July 2013, it was announced that Dragović was leaving Basel and had signed for

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

. During his time with the club Dragović played a total of 142 games for Basel scoring a total of nine goals. 77 of these games were in the

, eight in the

, 27 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 30 were friendly games. He scored four goals in the domestic league, one in the European games and the other was scored during the test games.

Dynamo Kyiv

On 26 July 2013, Dragović had signed a five-year contract with Ukrainian club

FC Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet ...

. On 17 May 2015, Dragović helped Dynamo beat

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

1–0 which was the game that won Dynamo their first

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

title in six years. On 4 November 2015, Dragović scored his first ever

goal in the group stage against Chelsea at

on the 78th minute, as well as scoring an own goal on the 34th. Dynamo ended up losing that match 2–1. In that season he helped Dynamo reach the last sixteen of the

for the first time in 16 years, getting knocked out by

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

1–3 on aggregate.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

On 22 August 2016, Dragović signed a five-year contract with German club

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

Leicester City (loan)

On 31 August 2017, Dragović joined

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

on a season-long loan from

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

Red Star Belgrade

On 26 May 2021, Dragović signed a three-year contract with

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

International career

Dragović also used to be part of the national under-17 and under-19 Austrian teams. He was called up for the national team of Austria for their

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oc ...

match against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, but due to an injury he was unable to play. He was called up again by the Austrian head coach

Dietmar Constantini Dietmar "Didi" Constantini (30 May 1955 – 18 December 2024) was an Austrian football player and manager. Constantini was appointed head coach of the Austria national team in March 2009 and was replaced by Marcel Koller in October 2011. In h ...

for the match against

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. He made his international debut in this match on 6 June 2009. Dragović scored his first goal on 18 November 2014 in a 1–2 home defeat to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. He made the final squad for

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

, where he was sent-off in the first game against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, and missed a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

in the decisive match against

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, which ended in a 2–1 defeat. Dragović was part of the Austrian team which qualified to the

Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of E ...

round of 16. On 29 March 2022, he played his 100th match for Austria in a 2–2 draw against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Personal life

Dragović was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria to

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

parents from

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. His favourite team is

, which he ended up joining in 2021. In May 2012, Dragović attracted criticism in Swiss media for playfully slapping the Swiss defence and sport minister

Ueli Maurer Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer (; born 1 December 1950) is a Swiss politician who served as a List of members of the Swiss Federal Council, Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2009 to 2022. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he was Pres ...

bald Hair loss, also known as alopecia or baldness, refers to a loss of hair from part of the head or body. Typically at least the head is involved. The severity of hair loss can vary from a small area to the entire body. Inflammation or scarring ...

head during

win medal ceremony. After making further comments about being reluctant to apologize—stating that "on the inside everybody knows, so I believe, that it was very, very much fun doing it"—Dragović reportedly traveled to the Bundeshaus in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

in order to personally apologize to Maurer.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Austria Wien *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

: 2008–09 Basel *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Dynamo Kyiv *

: 2014–15, 2015–16 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( ) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003–04 season, the Cup winner qu ...

: 2013–14, 2014–15 *

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup () is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football (soccer), football competition season in Ukraine. Originally it was s ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Red Star Belgrade *

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League (), also known as Mozzart SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Serbia and the highest level of the Serbian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a sys ...

: 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 ...

, 2023–24 *

Serbian Cup The Serbian Cup ( Serbian: Куп Србије / Kup Srbije), also known as Mozzart Serbian Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the national football cup of Serbia. The winner of the competition gets a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round. ...