Third day of the adventure on German soil. The European championship is slowly coming to life, with the Italian national team starting well yesterday with the victory over Albania. Several selections start as favorites but, as often happens in this competition, you have to be careful underdog. Being summer EURO 2024 it could prove to be a particularly interesting showcase for the transfer market. The editorial team of MilanPress.it he then proposes the column “A talent a day“, as happened at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
In these lines you will not read anything real regarding the market (or at least, at the time of writing the article), but real fantasies for the new Milan Of Paulo Fonseca, respecting parameters and maintaining tactical coherence if possible. From now until July 14th we will have fun, hoping to… close our bags and go to Berlin. The evening match pits Serbia against England, one of the favorites of the competition, but our focus is on a player from the Balkans: Strahinja Pavlovic.
THE BOY WHO GREW UP EMULATING VIDIC
Identity card
Name and surname: Strahinja Pavlovic.
Place and date of birth: Šabac, 24 May 2001.
Nationality: Serbia.
Role: central defender.
Foot: left.
Club membership: Red Bull Salzburg.
Previous clubs: Partizan, Munich, Cercle Bruges, Basel.
Price of the card: 25 million euros.
History
Born in Šabac, Pavlovic started playing for local team Savacium before joining Partizan Belgrade already at youth level. Born a midfielder, he was gradually moved back to the center of defense, giving rise to excellent performances with the youth selections of the Serbian national team, from Under-16 to Under-21. His debut with Partizan came in 2019, at just 17 years and 9 months, and he immediately won the starting place, making fifteen appearances between the championship and the Serbian cup in his first season “among the greats”. , a competition that wins by playing from the first to the last minute every match from the quarterfinals to the final.
The following season came the definitive consecration, with Strahinja becoming an immovable pillar of Partizan and ending up in the sights of many European clubs: in the end Monaco won for ten million euros. In the Principality, however, he played little and was loaned first to Cercle Bruges and then to Basel, interrupting the rise that everyone expected from him. In July 2022 it is the Salzburg to bet on it, acquiring him for seven million, and in Austria Pavlovic returns the player who had impressed in his homeland. As for the national team, the native of Sabac made his debut in the senior selection in 2020, and so far he has collected 35 appearances and 4 goals, becoming an untouchable for the technical commissioner Dragan Stojkovic.
Technical features
A 194cm giant, Pavlovic grew up emulating Nemanja Vidic, a legend for all Serbian football. Like the former Manchester United player, Strahinja is the prototype of the modern defender: good one-on-one, he is characterized by his aggressive marking but also by his ability to set up with his left foot, mindful of his early career as a midfielder .
Curiosity: in 2019, Pavlovic was, in fact, a new Lazio player, discovered by Igli Tare and purchased by Partizan for 5.5 million. The transfer, however, was canceled due to failure to pass the medical examinations, given that – as the Biancoceleste team doctor, Ivo Pulcini, explained – “at that moment he was unfit, I couldn’t give him sporting eligibility because he had some anomalies that made me suspect something serious. He is an excellent footballer, but in that period he had situations that could have had an impact on his general state of health“. Problems now resolved for Strahinja, for whom the right moment seems to have truly arrived for the big leap: and Milan really lacks a left central foot…
