Teenage Madness!
The Hunt for the "New Messi"
07.12.2006 by JadranSport
We are seemingly entrering a new age in football business, where a trend to investing huge sums for teenagers becomes a common practice among the European top clubs. Talented South American, African or European boys are chased by scouts from clubs such as Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milano, Bayern München or Manchester United and are offered unbelievable sums - at least thats what the rumours say. The most spectacular teenage appearence in a European top club in the recent years was FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi. When he scored his first senior goal for the club against Albacete on May 1, 2005, Messi was 17 years, 10 months and 7 days old, becoming the youngest to ever score in a La Liga game for FC Barcelona. The latest news are, that Inter Milan are being linked with a sensational swoop for the Barcelona starlet.Now we are witnessing a growing transfer market interest in talented teenage boys from the Balkans. Here are some of the "Balkan Superboys", which were mentioned in the media headlines recently.
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Nikon Jevtic (13) - (SRB) - Schalke 04
Perhaps one of the most interesting youth players with a Balkan background is 13 year old Nikon Jevtic. Like the Serbo-Spanish Bojan Krkic, he is considered as a football "wunderkind". FC Schalke 04 signed one of the most desired teenagers of world-soccer this summer. The 13-year old, who was previously at FC Valencia and Austria Vienna, signed a contract for the Bundesliga giant until 2009 with the option on further years. He was born in England to Serbian parents, as his parents fled during the war. He is tri-lingual, as he can speak English, German, and Serbian. "Niko is an incredible talent", said Schalke’s coach Mirko Slomka. Bayern München and PSV Eindhoven were also interested in the Serbian “wonderboy”, as well as some other Spanish and English top clubs. On internet platforms and forums such as YouTube, Nikon is, despite his young age, already a little "star", with numerous of his videos viewed by the world wide web community.
Ante Rukavina (20) - (CRO) - HNK Sibenik
HNK Sibenik's striker has caught the attention of many scouts and managers this fall, and so far he scored eight goals in seventeen league appearances in the Croatian First League. His great goal-scoring skills and talent have been even confirmed by the former Yugoslav international striker Josip Skoblar who's now a leading scout in France. Skoblar's influence and good judgment might help this 20-year-old move to Olympique Lyon whose officials have already made contact with Sibenik management. However, despite rumours of moves to Portugal, England or France as well as Croatian giants Hajduk and NK Dinamo Zagreb, Rukavina insists he will not be rushed into leaving Šibenik. "I will stay until the end of the season," he said. "I don't want to go three levels up and then fall back. No way."
Bojan Krkic (16) - (SRB-ESP) - FC Barcelona
After the 16-year-old destroyed on his Barca B debut two weeks ago, against Huesca, Frank Rijkaard must be tempted to consider promoting the gifted teenager into his first-team squad in 2007, when Krkic enters the critical age of 17. Bojan has been tipped as the best young player in Europe and has scored over 800 goals at junior levels for Barca. Despite some serious interest by Liverpool and Chelsea, Krkic has declared no interest in moving from Barca, and Rijkaard too, has rolled out a “NOT FOR SALE” tag on Krkic’s contract. His father is a former Crvena Zvezda player from Serbia but Krkic has opted to represent the Spanish national youth teams. Therefore Krkic's nationality was a hot debated topic among the JadranSport community since several months. Nevertheless JadranSport will continue to observe the "wunderkind" and report on his further progress.
Goran Slavkovski (17) (MAC) - Inter Milan
Swedish-born soccer prodigy Goran Slavkovski is raising heads all over Europe, already earning the nickname “Ibrahimovic the Second.” Born April 8, 1989, in Skravlinge, Sweden, the 17-year old Slavkovski shares much in common with Serie A’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Both players began their careers with Swedish side Malmo FF, and before that Rosengard club FBK Balkan, and both players have family origins in the former Yugoslavia. But this is just the tip of the iceberg as Slavkovski, like his childhood role model Ibrahimovic, currently finds himself at Italy’s FC Internazionale Milano, hoping to further develop the goal-scoring prowess he has shown thus far. Over the past few weeks, reports from Old Trafford were indicating that Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will be making a lucrative bid for Internazionales young frontman.
Stevan Jovetic (17) (MNE) - FK Partizan
Jovetic was born on 2nd November 1989 in Podgorica and previously said in an interview for the Serbian daily "Danas", that he will play for his native country Montenegro. "I have the wish and duty to wear the dress of Montenegro", the youngster declared openly. 17 year old Jovetic had a couple of excellent appearences for Partizan this season, where he also scored two goals in the Serbian Cup and League. German 2nd Bundesliga side 1.FC Köln has made definite offers of around 2.5 Million Euros for the promising youngster, but it is also rumoured that he had offers from clubs such as Juventus, Real Madrid and FC Chelsea. The midfielder declared recently for the German tabloid newspaper "BILD": "I want to go to Christoph Daum. He is a fantastic coach. I can learn a lot from him."
Miralem Sulejmani (18) (SRB) - Herenveen
Dutch Eredivisie club Heerenveen have signed former Partizan player Miralem Sulejmani today after negotiations between AZ Alkmaar and the midfielder broke down. The 18-year-old was a free agent after leaving Partizan and had been on trail at AZ with a view to a permanent move, but the two parties could not agree a deal. Heerenveen duly swooped to sign Sulejmani on a three-and-a-half year contract, which starts in January 2007. The versatile attacking midfielder is rated as a major talent in Serbia, having made his first-team debut last season. Sulejmani is also a Serbian U21 selection player, who just recently made it into Miroslav Djukic's squad.