Ranko Veselinović ( sr-Cyrl, Ранко Веселиновић; born 24 March 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 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

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

Club career

Vojvodina

Born in

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

, Veselinović came through the

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

youth academy, as a captain of the generation. In summer 2016, Veselinović signed a three-year scholarship contract. He joined the first team during the

2016–17 Serbian SuperLiga The 2016–17 Serbian SuperLiga was the eleventh season of the Serbian SuperLiga. Red Star are the defending champions. The fixtures were announced on 15 June 2016. Red Star Belgrade drew the highest average home attendance of the league (9,056). ...

campaign at the age of 17 but missed to make any official appearance until the end of season. At the beginning of new season, Veselinović converted his

squad number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to id ...

taking 33 jersey and continued playing with youth team respective. He made his senior debut as a

in 3–1 victory over

Napredak Kruševac Napredak, which translates from Serbo-Croatian as ''Progress'', may refer to: *HKD Napredak, cultural society of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina *FK Napredak Kruševac, Serbian football club *FK Napredak Aleksinac, Serbian football club *FK Napred ...

on 16 September 2017. On 27 October 2017, Ranko signed his first professional contract, penning a deal that would keep him in Vojvodina until June 2021.

Vancouver Whitecaps

On 9 February 2020, it was announced that

had acquired Veselinović on a season-long loan, with an option to purchase, which they exercised on 18 October 2020.

International career

Veselinović appeared as a member of

Serbia national under-16 football team The Serbia national under-17 football team represents Serbia in international football at this age level and is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia, the governing body for football in Serbia. Competitive record European U-16/U-1 ...

between 2014 and 2015, scoring a goal in 3–1 away victory over

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

on 23 August 2014. Later he also played for Serbian under-17 and under-18 selection until 2017. In August 2017, Veselinović was called into the Serbia U19 squad, when he made a debut at the memorial tournament "Stevan Vilotić - Ćele". In December 2017, Veselinović got his first call in Serbian under-21 team by coach

Goran Đorović Goran Đorović ( sr-Cyrl, Горан Ђopoвић; born 11 November 1971) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played mainly a central defender but also as a left-back. In his country, he played for Priština and Red Star. He spent ...

, instead of injured Srđan Babić. He made his debut for the team in away friendly against

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

on 17 December 2017.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Vancouver Whitecaps *

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Va ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Veselinovic, Ranko 1999 births Living people Footballers from Novi Sad Men's association football defenders Serbian men's footballers Serbia men's youth international footballers FK Vojvodina players Vancouver Whitecaps FC players Serbian SuperLiga players Serbia men's under-21 international footballers Major League Soccer players Serbian expatriate men's footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Serbia men's international footballers