Luka Ilić ( sr-Cyrl, Лука Илић; born 2 July 1999) 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 ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligu ...

side

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near ...

Club career

Red Star Belgrade

Luka started playing football with local football club Filip Filipović at the age of 7, along with his younger brother

Ivan Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulga ...

. Later he played with football club Real Niš until 2014, when he joined

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in ...

. He joined the first team in for the 2016–17 season under coach

Miodrag Božović Miodrag "Grof" Božović (, ; born 22 June 1968) is a Montenegrin football manager and former player. Playing career Club A tall central defender, Božović played alongside Yugoslav and Montenegrin legends Predrag Mijatović and Dejan Savi� ...

, making his senior debut for the team in a friendly match against Ludogorets Razgrad on 14 November 2015. Ilić signed his first professional contract with

in February 2016. During the summer pre-season in 2017, Ilić presented as one of the top ten club's youth prospects. He made his official debut for the club on 6 July 2017, replacing

Slavoljub Srnić Slavoljub Srnić ( sr-Cyrl, Славољуб Срнић; born 12 January 1992) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a winger. He is a twin brother of Dragoljub Srnić. He is currently performing for Red Star Belgrade. Club career ...

in second leg of the

first qualifying round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

for 2017–18 UEFA Europa League against

Floriana Floriana ( mt, Il-Furjana or ''Il-Floriana''), also known by its title Borgo Vilhena, is a fortified town in the South Eastern Region area of Malta, just outside the capital city Valletta. It has a population of 2,205 as of March 2014. Floriana ...

. Several days later, Red Star accepted an offer from the English side Manchester City and Ilić had been sold for a €5 million net fee along with his younger brother Ivan. Within the arrangement, Luka returned at one-year loan deal to Red Star. Ilić made his

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 ...

debut on 13 August 2017, as a substitution for

Nemanja Milić Nemanja Milić ( sr-cyr, Немања Милић; born 25 May 1990) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a winger. Club career OFK Beograd Born in Sombor, Milić started his career with OFK Beograd, where he passed youth categories. ...

in the 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 t ...

. He scored his first senior goal in 4–0 victory over Mačva Šabac on 14 October 2017.

NAC Breda

Ilić signed for Dutch side

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

on loan for the 2018–19 season. On 3 August 2019, it was announced that Ilić would spend another year on loan at NAC despite their relegation.

FC Twente

Ilić was announced as a

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedes ...

loan signing on transfer deadline day for the 2020–21 season. On 8 July 2021, it was announced he would spend another year on loan at the club. After making only five appearances it was announced that Ilić would not be continuing with the team after the winter break, cutting his loan spell short and returning to his parent club.

Troyes

In January 2022 Ilić made a permanent transfer to French side

. He signed contract until summer of 2024.

Style of play

As a left-footed player, Ilić performed at all position in midfield through the youth career. In early years of playing football, he usually performed more offensive as a

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

. Joining the youth team of Red Star Belgrade, Ilić converted his position, playing as right-side

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, and later as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

with a box-to-box role, being paired with his brother. He characterized by lucidity and great performances face to face game against the opponent. Ilić is also free-kick taker.

Personal life

Born in

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, whil ...

, Ilić grew up in a sports family. His father Srđan played as a winger in Radnički Niš and his mother

Danijela Ilić Danijela Ilić (Serbian Cyrillic: Данијела Илић, born August 20, 1970, in Niš, SFR Yugoslavia) is a former Yugoslavian and Serbian female basketball player. Personal life Ilić has two sons, Luka (born 1999) and Ivan (born 2001), ...

played basketball professionally. Luka's younger brother,

is also a professional footballer.

International career

Ilić made his debut and first international goal for

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

on 25 January 2023 in a friendly match against

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

which Serbia won 2–1. He was a starter in that game and scored his first international goal.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Red Star Belgrade *

: 2017–18 Individual *

Team of the Season:

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 ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilic, Luka 1999 births Living people Footballers from Niš Men's association football midfielders Serbian men's footballers Serbian SuperLiga players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Red Star Belgrade footballers Manchester City F.C. players NAC Breda players FC Twente players ES Troyes AC players FK TSC players Serbia men's under-21 international footballers Serbia men's youth international footballers Serbian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Serbian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in France Serbian expatriate sportspeople in France Serbia men's international footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England