Dusan Vlahovićmore than a bet, became a reality. Although he had already been demonstrating it in the Fiorentinawhere he scored 49 goals in 108 games, now continues his legacy at his new club: the Juventuswho disbursed a figure close to 80 million euros to get hold of him.
This Tuesday, the striker born in Belgrade, Serbia, began to sow his seed in the highest echelons of the round sport. Why? It took just 32 seconds to score his first goal in Champions. He had never before played in the most important continental tournament at club level and he did so wearing the Vecchia Signora shirt against Villarreal (1-1 draw).
Dusan Vlahovic makes history in the Champions League (Photo by Jose Jordan / AFP)
Oh, and as if that weren’t enough, At just 22 years and 25 days, he became the youngest Serbian player to score a goal in a Champions League knockout stage. Thanks to his shout against the Yellow Submarine at the La Cerámica Stadium, surpassed the record of Zoran Tosic, who playing for the CSKA Moscowscored at the age of 24 years and 321 days in the round of 16 of the 2011-12 season.
Vlahovic, who is compared to Haland and Mbappewas born in the cold European January back in 2000, in Zemun, a town 12 kilometers from the capital Belgrade. The striker, who is 190 centimeters tall and always stood out for his tall stature compared to boys his age, also ventured into martial arts, but since he was a child he always had that unique love for the ball.
His life is marked by milestones from the beginning of his career. In 2014, he started playing for the youth teams of Partizan Belgradeand just a year later, At just 14 years old, he became the youngest player to sign a professional contract with the Serbian team. After training for several months with the first team, At 16 pirulos and 22 days, his long-awaited debut against OFK Belgrade arrived. Despite the defeat of his team, Vlahović He became the shortest-lived player to play a match in the history of Partizan.
While everyone was talking about his present and his numbers, little Dusan was not so sure that his playing career was as good as it was said and even at some point he thought about leaving number five to study medicine. “Medicine is my choice because if I don’t achieve anything with football, God forbid, I have to finish school and go to university.” had said at the time.
The paradoxes of life: Vlahovic, with his former club, facing his current team (REUTERS / Massimo Pinca)
In 2018, after his good performances in his homeland, the Fiorentina He laid his eyes on him and decided to take over the services of the Serbian in exchange for almost two million euros. Although he started playing in the U-19 of the Italian team, he was quickly promoted to the first team. But of course, at that time, the young Vlahovic was running far behind, given that Fiore had two high-level players in their attack: Federico Chiesa and Franck Ribery.
Until one day, the light came on for Dusan: Ribéry was released and Chiesa, one of the greatest promises in Italian football, was sold to Juventus. A) Yes, At the age of 19, he became the starting nine and even made the numbers of his predecessors forget: he scored 21 goals in 40 games. Crazy.
His level was so high that, in addition to attracting the attention of several big clubs in Europe, the Italian press began to compare him with great exponents worldwide and even knew how to call him ‘the new Batistuta’, although of course, not precisely because he was Argentinian. In addition, he has a devastating stat: during 2021, their conversion numbers were second only to those of Robert Lewandowskiwho ended up taking the Golden Boot at the end of the year.
In early 2022, the Serbian was transferred to Juventus in exchange for almost 80 million euros. This did not go down well in the city of Florence and the player’s farewell became a bit aggressive: Viola fans and leaders accused him of being a traitor for not wanting to renew his contract with the team and go over to the most powerful team of Calcium.
THE 7, NOTHING TO DO WITH CHRISTIAN
Of course, Vlahovic does not pretend to be less than anyone. For his first year in the Turin outfit, he chose the number 7 shirt and, although many thought that he had selected it out of some kind of admiration for Cristiano Ronaldowho wore that number until last season, Dusan was quite blunt with his answer when he was consulted on the subject and even denied the past of that shirt at Juve.
”The number 7 honestly doesn’t mean anything to me. All the numbers at Juventus are very important, but I chose it because it’s the closest to 9″, Vlahovic clarified in his first conference as a Juve player.
Dusan Vlahovic, the new owner of the 7.
COULD HE HAVE PLAYED AT BARSA WITH MESSI?
Another of the bad decisions that Barcelona made in these years was not to hire Dusan Vlahovic when he had the opportunity… and for an unthinkable price! Although it seems hard to believe, the serbian was offered to Barsa in July 2020 in exchange for an alleged loan with a mandatory purchase option of 18 million euros. Yes, almost 60 less than what Juve ended up paying him. At that time, the Sports Secretariat then headed by Eric Abidalrejected the offer.
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Who is the jewel of Juve who scored at 32 seconds in his Champions League debut