Beyond The Top 5: 4 lethal strikers who played for Partizan Belgrade, just like Vlahovic

Dusan Vlahovic recently completed his €75 million from Fiorentina to Juventus in what is widely considered the biggest move of the January transfer window both by price tag and pedigree.

Vlahovic came through the ranks at Partizan Belgrade in his native Serbia where he debuted as a 16-year old in 2016.

Now 22 years old and having scored 20 goals already this season, Vlahovic has become the latest in the trend of lethal strikers that started their careers at Partizan Belgrade or at least once played for the Serbian giants, here are the others.

Most people remember Mateja Kezman as a deadly striker for PSV who flopped spectacularly at Chelsea but before all that, he spent some time with Partizan Belgrade.

Kezman was only a Partizan Belgrade player for two seasons after joining on a free transfer in 1998 but he made a big impact with 43 goals in 74 appearances which prompted PSV to pay €14 million in the summer of 2000.

Kezman would go on to score 129 goals in 176 appearances in four seasons for PSV and attained similar levels of hype as Vlahovic right now.

Those incredible numbers earned him his dream move to Chelsea which also turned out to be a nightmare as Kezman only managed seven goals in 41 appearances in his first and only season at the club. His career went downhill from there which is something Dusan Vlahovic has to be careful about or suffer a similar fate.

Stevan Jovetic had an almost identical start to his career as Vlahovic right now because they are both graduates of the Partizan Belgrade academy and their first move out of Serbia was to join Fiorentina.

Jovetic made his professional debut for Partizan as a 16-year old in 2005 and after 17 goals and 10 assists in 53 appearances, he was snapped up by Fiorentina three years later.

The Serbian international would go on to play for some of Europe’s biggest clubs such as Manchester City, Inter Milan, Sevilla and Monaco. He is still very much active at 32 years old and is leading the line for Hertha Berlin in the German Bundesliga. 

Adem Llajic joined Partizan Belgrade as a 14-year old in 2005 and debuted three years later after which he got signed in 2010 by (you guessed it) Fiorentina.

Although Llajic is primarily an attacking midfielder, he has played as a supporting striker, left winger and centre forward in his career so far.

Llajic has also played for Roma and Inter Milan but the 30-year old now plays for Besiktas in the Turkish Super League.

The only player on this list that did not leave Partizan Belgrade for Fiorentina, Aleksandar Mitrovic was poached by Anderlecht instead.

Mitrovic joined in 2010 as a 15-year old but would only play his first season for the senior team three years later after scoring 15 goals in 36 appearances in what turned out to be his only full season at the club.

In two seasons at Anderlecht, Mitrovic scored 44 goals in 90 appearances which earned him move to Newcastle as a 20-year old. Things did not work out as envisaged in Tyneside and after three underwhelming years, Mitrovic joined Fulham.

The Serb is currently in his fourth season as a Fulham player and they have been evenly split between the English Premier League and the Championship.

Fulham are the ultimate yoyo team (shoutout to Norwich too) which has contributed to a noticeable pattern of Mitrovic only being superb in the Championship and underperforming in the Premier League.