Lazar Vujadin Samardžić ( sr-Cyrl, Лазар Вујадин Самарџић, ; born 24 February 2002) 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 lea ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for Italian club

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

. Born in Germany, he plays for the Serbia national team.

Club career

Hertha BSC

Youth

Samardžić played for BSV Grün-Weiss Neukölln 1950 e.V. from 2008 to 2009, and joined Hertha BSC from 9 October 2009. Samardžić played for the U17 and U19 teams of Hertha BSC in the Under 17 and

Under 19 Bundesliga The Under 19 Bundesliga (German: ''A-Junioren Bundesliga'') is the highest level in German Under 19 football. It was created in 2003 and is divided in three divisions (Nord/Nordost, West und Süd/Südwest) with 14 teams each. The winner of each ...

, scoring 16 and 14 goals respectively. Samardžić won the bronze award of the

Fritz Walter Medal The Fritz Walter Medal is a series of annual awards given by the German Football Association to youth footballers in Germany. First awarded in 2005, it is named in honour of Fritz Walter, captain of West Germany's 1954 FIFA World Cup-winning team ...

in the U17 group.

First team

Samardžić was announced to have signed a professional contract, and first appeared as an unused substitute for the professional team in a 3–3 away draw against

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fo ...

on 28 February 2020. Samardžić made his debut for

Hertha BSC 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 league system, German footbal ...

in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

on 22 May 2020, coming on as a substitute for

Per Ciljan Skjelbred Per Ciljan Skjelbred (born 16 June 1987) is a Norwegian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ranheim. He has previously played for Hertha Berlin and Hamburger SV, and has been capped 43 times playing for Norway, but as of 2017, retired fro ...

in the 81st minute of the

Berlin derby The Berlin derby (, ) is the name given to any association football match between two clubs in Berlin, Germany, but has more recently referred to the derby between 1. FC Union Berlin and Hertha BSC. History Before reunification Despite produci ...

against

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as Union Berlin (), is a professional Football in Germany, German football club based in Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was fo ...

, which finished as a 4–0 win. Samardzic is considered one of Germany's most talented prospects and he has attracted serious interest from elite clubs around the world, such as Chelsea, Barcelona and Juventus.

RB Leipzig

On 8 September 2020, Samardžić joined fellow

side

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

on a five-year deal. He made his RB Leipzig debut on 3 October, coming off the bench in a 4–0 win against

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, ...

Udinese

Ahead of the 2021–22 season, 19-year-old Samardžić moved to Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

. He signed a five-year contract.

Atalanta

On 18 August 2024, Samardžić joined fellow Serie A side

on loan, with an obligation to make the transfer permanent under certain conditions. Later that year, on 26 November, he scored his first Champions League goal in a 6–1 away victory over Young Boys.

International career

Samardžić played for

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

at the Under-15 level and Germany at the Under-17 and Under-19 levels. He first appeared internationally and played two matches in the 2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification against

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. He then played in all three matches of the group stage of the tournament, scoring once, but the team failed to progress to the

knockout stage 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, w ...

. For the U-19 level, he played in the

2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification The 2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that was originally to determine the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Northern Ireland in the 2020 UEFA European Un ...

, scoring twice.

Serbia national team

In February 2023, the

Football Association of Serbia The Football Association of Serbia () is the governing body of football in Serbia, based in Belgrade. It organizes Serbian football leagues, namely the Serbian Superliga, the Serbia national football team, as well as the Second Leagues. FSS was ...

announced that Samardžić had accepted manager

Dragan Stojković Dragan Stojković ( sr-Cyrl, Драган Стојковић, ; born 3 March 1965), also known by the nickname Piksi (Пикси), is a Serbian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He's currently a selector head coach of ...

's invitation to switch his allegiance to

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 ...

on his 21st birthday. He subsequently received his first official call-up to the Serbian senior national team the following month, being included in the list for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

matches against

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

and

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

. On 25 March 2023, Samardžić made his debut for Serbia in a 2–0 win over Lithuania in Belgrade. Samardžić was selected in Serbia's squad for the

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

. He played in group stage matches against

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Serbia finished fourth in the group.

Personal life

Samardžić was born in

, and he is a

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history, and language. They primarily live in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

from

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

. His father hails from

Živinice Živinice is a city located in Tuzla Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, south of Tuzla. As of 2013, it has a population of 57,765 inhabitan ...

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbo-Croatian: ''Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine'' / ''Федерација Босне и Херцеговине'') is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities composing Bo ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

RB Leipzig *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

runner up:

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 ...

Individual *

U17 Bronze:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samardžić, Lazar 2002 births Living people Footballers from Berlin Serbian men's footballers Serbia men's international footballers German men's footballers Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers German people of Serbian descent Men's association football midfielders Hertha BSC players Hertha BSC II players RB Leipzig players Udinese Calcio players Atalanta BC players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Serie A players German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Italy Serbian expatriate men's footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy UEFA Euro 2024 players 21st-century German sportsmen