Vanja Milinković-Savić

Vanja Milinković-Savić (Serbian Cyrillic: Вања Милинковић-Савић; born 20 February 1997) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Polish club Lechia Gdańsk. After failing to be awarded a UK work permit with English club Manchester United, he was released by the club in November 2015 and signed a contract with Lechia Gdańsk. He was born in Ourense, Spain

Career

Club

On 2 April 2014, Milinković-Savić signed his first professional contract with Vojvodina, penning a three-year deal. On 17 May 2014, it was announced by Manchester United that the club reached agreement with Vojvodina for the transfer of Milinković-Savić. Both clubs agreed that the player would stay with Vojvodina for one more season. The deal was completed on 5 August 2014, for a transfer fee of €1.75 million.

Milinković-Savić made his competitive debut for Vojvodina on 10 August 2014, keeping a clean sheet in a 3–0 home league victory over OFK Beograd. He played the full 90 minutes in all 15 league games in the first part of the 2014–15 season. After the winter break, Milinković-Savić lost his place as first-choice goalkeeper to experienced Srđan Žakula, making only two more league appearances.

After failing to earn a work permit to play in England, Milinković-Savić was released by Manchester United in November 2015 and he signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with Polish club Lechia Gdańsk on 26 November; the contract commenced on 1 January 2016.

International

Milinković-Savić was selected to represent Serbia at the 2014 UEFA Under-19 Championship. He served as a backup to Predrag Rajković, failing to make an appearance at the tournament, as the team was eliminated by Portugal on penalties in the semi-finals of the competition.

Milinković-Savić again served as a backup to Rajković at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, where the Serbian team won the gold medal.

Career statistics

As of 5 January 2017.

Honours

Serbia U20

• FIFA U-20 World Cup: 2015

Personal life

Milinković-Savić was born in Ourense, Spain, to parents Nikola Milinković, who was playing professional football for CD Ourense, and Milana Savić, a professional basketball player. He is the younger brother of midfielder Sergej Milinković-Savić.