Football » Fudbal | 105 Football is more of a passion than anything else. I’mnot obsessed with statistics. It’s always nice when you have good statistics, but football is love, saysAleksandarMitrović, whowent frombeing a teenager at Partizan to become probably the most popular Serbian footballer today. He played excellently in matches in the UEFA NationsLeague, but nobodyhas forgottenhis 90thminute goal against Portugal in Lisbon last November. And how could we not recall that strike, given that the win secured our spot at theWorldCup inQatar?! After scoring three goals in the match against Sweden, he also demonstrated his prowess in the match against Norway. On that occasion, he scored the second goal for our national team in the 54th minute and thus stamped Serbia’s ticket to the A division. “Individual quality isn’t as important now. We look good as a team and that’s how it should be. I believe that we’ve earned the tag of a team that no one would like to play against. Regardless of who’s on the other side, we play the same.We have our game andwe stick to it.We compete and we will compete and stive to win,” saidMitrović who, together with Erling Haaland, topped the goal scoring charts of the UEFA Nations League. By scoring his jubilee 50th goal for the national team against Norway, he outdid both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo: it took Mitrović just 76 games to score 50 international goals, a feat that was only achieved by Ronaldo after 114 matches for Portugal and by Messi after 107 appearances in an Argentina shirt. This Serbian footballer also shines intheEnglishPremierLeague, in the shirt of Fulham, where he’s been playing since 2018. He previously played for Newcastle United, Anderlecht, Partizan and Zemun’s Teleoptik. He began his senior career in 2011, six years after making his junior debut, and has been a member of Serbia’s national team for more than a decade. “I entered the footballworldearly, at the age of 16. You don’t think too much when you’re young; you see things inadifferentway. I’vematured. I’ve gone fromaboy tobeing a manand I nowviewtheworlddifferently. I’ve also become a father, and time has played its part,” he said on oneoccasion,beforerevealingwhohe lookedup toonhis journey in sport. “Every player had someone as their idol. They are now looking at me and thatmakesmehappy.When I was little, my idol was Saša Ilić. He was the role model for every child and fan of Partizan, myself included. He is one of the reasons I took my first steps in football. He would tell the new kids to work hard and train, tonever give up.That’s the only right way.” All fansof football are impatientlycountingdownthedaystothestart of theWorldCup inQatar,whichwill run from20th November to 18th December this year.We arewaiting for the miraculous Mitar to once again delight us with goals. He once said that hard work pays off, sometimes immediately, sometimes after a few years, because everything pays off in the end. Football is a fair game, saysMitar, andwe’rewholeheartedly cheering for both him and football. Deci poručuje da vredno rade, da nikada ne odustaju, jer to je jedini način da se stigne do cilja He tells children towork hard, to never give up, because that’s the only right way to achieve their goal A l e ksandar M i t rov i ć, foot ba l l e r Football is a fair game We are waiting impatiently for the footballing wizard that is Mitar, who left both Ronaldo and Messi in his wake, to take to the pitch again, this time in Qatar, with the Serbia national team 50/76 Mitrović je dao 50 golova na 76 utakmica, Ronaldo je do istog broja golova došao posle 114mečeva za Portugal It took Mitrović just 76 games to score 50 goals, a feat that was only achieved by Ronaldo after 114 matches for Portugal
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