Saša Lukić ( sr-Cyrl, Саша Лукић, ; born 13 August 1996) 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

defensive 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. ...

for club

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

and the Serbia national team.

Early life

Lukić was born in

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

, a village near

Šabac Šabac ( sr-Cyrl, Шабац, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative centre of the Mačva District in western Serbia. The traditional centre of the fertile Mačva region, Šabac is located on the right banks of the river ...

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 ...

FR Yugoslavia The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...

on 13 August 1996.

Club career

Partizan

Lukić started playing football at POFK Savacium, a football school in Šabac, before joining Partizan as a trainee in August 2009. He signed his first professional contract for the club in August 2013 on his 17th birthday, signing a three-year deal.

Loan to Teleoptik

To gain senior experience, Lukić was immediately loaned to Teleoptik. He played regularly for the Opticians in the 2013–14 season, making 23 league appearances and scoring three goals, as the club failed to avoid relegation.

Return to Partizan

On 16 May 2015, Lukić made his competitive debut for Partizan and played the full match in a 1–1 home league draw with

Novi Pazar Novi Pazar ( sr-cyr, Нови Пазар) is a List of cities in Serbia, city located in the Raška District of southwestern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the urban area has 71,462 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 106,720 inha ...

. On 17 July 2015, he entered in the game against Metalac, replacing

Stefan Babović Stefan Babović ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Бабовић; born 7 January 1987) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a deep-lying playmaker. He is the current chief operations officer (COO) of Victoria Group. During his foo ...

in first game of

2015–16 Serbian SuperLiga The 2015–16 Serbian SuperLiga is the tenth season of the Serbian SuperLiga, the top tier of league football in Serbia. The season started on 17 July 2015 and finished on 21 May 2016. Partizan were the defending champions. Changes from 2014– ...

. On 8 August, he scored his first official goal for Partizan in the final minutes of a 2–1 home win over Spartak Subotica. Two weeks later, he scored his second goal for Partizan in 3–1 away league win over Borac Čačak. On 26 August 2015, Lukić made his debut in the

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 ...

in the second leg of the play-off round against BATE Borisov. On 22 October, he played his first match in UEFA Europa League group stage against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

. In the absence of some players he captained the team for several games.

Torino

On 29 July 2016, Lukić was signed by Italian club

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. On 17 October, he made his debut in

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 ...

in a 4–1 win away to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, replacing Mirko Valdifiori. Lukić scored his first goal for Torino on 3 May 2019 in the

Derby della Mole The Derby della Mole is the local derby played out between Turin's most prominent Association football, football clubs, Juventus FC, Juventus and Torino FC, Torino. It is also known as the Derby di Torino or the Turin Derby in English. It is na ...

. Lukić followed the movement of the ball very well and in the duel he simply took the ball away from

Miralem Pjanić Miralem Pjanić (born 2 April 1990) is a Bosnian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Russian Premier League club CSKA Moscow. Pjanić started his professional career at Metz, playing there for one season. He signed for fellow ...

and placed it in the net in a rather routine manner. He scored his second goal on 26 May in the last game of the season in a 3–1 win over S.S. Lazio. At the end of the 2018–19 Serie A, Torino finished in seventh position and thus secured participation in the Europa League qualifiers.

Levante (loan)

On 15 August 2017, Lukić was loaned to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side Levante, for one year.

Fulham

On 31 January 2023, Lukić 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 ...

side

for an undisclosed fee, signing a four-and-a-half-year deal with the English club. Lukić made his debut at

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football stadium in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 29,589; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game agains ...

on 11 February, coming on in the 91st minute as a substitute for

Andreas Pereira Andreas Hugo Hoelgebaum Pereira (born 1 January 1996) is a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for club Fulham F.C., Fulham and the Brazil national football team, Brazil national team. ...

in a 2–0 win over

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

. Lukić was included in the starting line-up and played the whole game in the 0–3 loss against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Following a good run of games in the starting line-up, Lukić scored his first ever goal for Fulham in a 3–0 win 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 ...

International career

Lukić debuted for the Serbian senior squad on 7 September 2018 in a 1–0 victory 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 ...

. Lukić was selected in Serbia's squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

in Qatar. He played in all three group stage matches, against

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 ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Serbia finished fourth in the group. Lukić 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 all three group stage matches, against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 ...

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.

Style of play

Lukić is a quick, hardworking, versatile player with good vision, passing, and technique and well-rounded midfielder, who is also capable of playing in several positions, due to his ability to aid his team both offensively and defensively. A right-footed player, he is usually deployed as a creative attacking midfielder, due to his vision, passing, technique, and striking ability, as well as his adeptness at making attacking runs.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Partizan *

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 ...

: 2014–15 *

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. ...

: 2015–16

References

External links

Profile
at the Fulham F.C. website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lukic, Sasa Living people 1996 births Footballers from Šabac Men's association football midfielders Serbian men's footballers 2022 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2024 players Serbia men's international footballers Serbia men's under-21 international footballers Serbia men's youth international footballers Serie A players La Liga players Serbian SuperLiga players Serbian First League players Premier League players FK Partizan players FK Teleoptik players Torino FC players Levante UD footballers Fulham F.C. players Serbian expatriate men's footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Serbian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in England