Rijad Smajić (born 2 May 2004) is a Bosnian

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 FC Köln.

Club career

Smajić, who joined FC Köln from

Fortuna Köln Fortuna (, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at least the Re ...

in 2019 as a youth player, secured a three-year contract with the team in October 2022. He has been named on the bench multiple times for the first-team 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 ...

and the Conference League.

International career

Smajić was born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

to parents of Bosnian descent, making him eligible to play for both

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Bosnia 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 ...

at the international level. He has represented the Bosnia U19 team.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smajic, Rijad 2004 births Living people Bosnia and Herzegovina men's footballers 21st-century Bosnia and Herzegovina sportsmen Men's association football central defenders German men's footballers German people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Footballers from Cologne SC Fortuna Köln players 1. FC Köln II players Bosnia and Herzegovina men's youth international footballers Bosnia and Herzegovina men's under-21 international footballers 21st-century German sportsmen