Saša Zdjelar ( sr-Cyrl, Саша Здјелар; born 20 March 1995) 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 for Russian club Zenit Saint Petersburg. His primary position is

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. ...

and he also plays

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 ...

Club career

Zdjelar made his senior debut for

OFK Beograd OFK Beograd ( sr-Cyrl, ОФК Београд – Омладински фудбалски клуб Београд, English language, English: ''Belgrade Youth Football Club''), also known in English as OFK Belgrade and currently referred to as OFK ...

in a 3–0 home league win over

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 3 December 2011, aged 16. He was later sold to Greek champions

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

in 2013, but remained at his parent club for the next two years. In total, Zdjelar recorded 67 competitive appearances with the ''Romantičari''. In the summer of 2015, Zdjelar eventually moved to Greece and joined Olympiacos. He made his debut for the club on 28 October 2015, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–2

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

draw versus

Platanias Platanias (Greek: Πλατανιάς) is a village and municipality on the Greek island of Crete. It is located about west from the city of Chania and east of Kissamos, on Chania Bay. The seat of the municipality is the village Gerani. Platani ...

. On 13 January 2016, Zdjelar scored his first ever senior goal for Olympiacos in a 6–0 Greek Cup win over

Chania Chania (, , ), also sometimes romanization of Greek, romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno ...

. On 13 January 2017, Zdjelar was loaned to Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

side

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. On 29 January 2018, he was loaned to Partizan until the end of the 2017–18 season, after being put on Olympiacos' out-of-favour list. At the end of the 2017–18 season, Partizan announced the signing of the player for an estimated fee at the range of €500,000 On 23 May 2018, Zdjelar scored the winner against Mladost Lučani, in the

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. ...

final. In 2018–19 season, Zdjelar won his second

trophy and collected 45 appearances for Partizan, across three competitions. After an assist by

Umar Sadiq Umar Sadiq Mesbah (born 2 February 1997) is a Nigerian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for La Liga club Valencia CF, Valencia, on loan from Real Sociedad, and the Nigeria nati ...

, Zdjelar scored a goal from 20 meters away in a 4–0 win over

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 ...

in the Derby of Serbia. In 2019–20 season, interrupted due to global pandemic of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, Zdjelar was again the most capped Partizan player, amassing 42 appearances (and skipping only 3 games) across all competitions. In July 2020, he wore Partizan's captain armband for the first time. On 28 July 2022, Zdjelar signed a contract with

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

for three years with an option to extend. On 21 February 2025, Zdjelar signed with Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg until the end of the 2025–26 season.

International career

Zdjelar represented

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 ...

at the 2014 UEFA Under-19 Championship, as the team was eliminated in the semi-final by

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

after penalties. He was also a member of the team that won the gold medal at the

2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the twentieth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The competition took place for the first time in New Zealand, the third time on Oceanian soil after ...

. On 31 May 2016, Zdjelar made his full international debut for

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 ...

, coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 friendly win over

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. He subsequently appeared as an injury-time substitute in a 1–1 friendly draw with

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 ...

Stade Louis II The Stade Louis II (, ), or simply Louis II is a stadium located in the Fontvieille district of Monaco, near the border with Cap-d'Ail commune of France. It serves primarily as a venue for Athletics and football, being the home of AS Monaco ...

five days later.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Olympiacos *

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repl ...

: 2015–16 *

runner-up: 2015–16 Partizan *

: 2017–18, 2018–19 CSKA Moscow * Russian Cup: 2022–23, 2024–25 Serbia U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zdjelar, Sasa 1995 births Living people Footballers from Belgrade Serbian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Serbian SuperLiga players OFK Beograd players Super League Greece players Russian Premier League players Olympiacos F.C. players RCD Mallorca players FK Partizan players PFC CSKA Moscow players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players Serbia men's international footballers Serbia men's under-21 international footballers Serbia men's youth international footballers Serbian expatriate men's footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Russia