Aleksandar Dragović

Aleksandar Dragović

Dragović in 2016
Personal information
Full name Aleksandar Dragović
Date of birth (1991-03-06) 6 March 1991
Place of birth Vienna, Austria
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position Centre back
Club information
Current team
 Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Number 6
Youth career
1997–2009 Austria Wien
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008 Austria Wien II 8 (2)
2009–2011 Austria Wien 66 (1)
2011–2013 FC Basel 77 (4)
2013–2016 Dynamo Kyiv 66 (0)
2016– Bayer Leverkusen 2 (0)
National team‡
2007–2008 Austria U17 11 (2)
2008–2009 Austria U19 6 (2)
2009– Austria 54 (1)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 October 2016.

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 24 June 2016

Aleksandar Dragović (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Драговић; born 6 March 1991) is an Austrian footballer currently playing for the German club Bayer 04 Leverkusen as a defender. He is well known for his performances as a tough-tackling centre-back.

Club career

Basel

Dragović started his career by playing in the youth teams of Austrian giants Austria Wien and started playing for their B-squad in 2007. As of 1 February 2011 Dragović transferred to FC Basel in the Swiss Super League.[1] He made his team debut in the 3:0 home win over FC St. Gallen. At the end of the 2010–11 Swiss Super League season Dragović won the Swiss Championship title with FC Basel. In July 2011 he played with his new club in the Uhrencup and won the tournament. He scored his first Super League goal in the 3–0 home win against Servette FC on 1 October 2011.[2] At the end of the 2011–12 season Dragović won the Double, the League Championship title[3] and the Swiss Cup[4] with Basel.

During Basel's 2012–13 season the team missed their Champions League aim. But in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League Basel advanced as far as the semifinals,[5] meaning that they played a total of 20 European matches. Dragović missed solely the second leg of the semi-final at Stamford Bridge due to a yellow card suspension, but had played in all the other European ties.

In the domestic championship he played in 32 of the 36 games. He scored three goals in the domestic league this season, all three being against Servette. At the end of the Swiss Super League season 2012–13 Dragovic won the Championship title[6] and was Swiss Cup runner up with Basel.[7]

Dynamo Kyiv

On 26 July 2013, Dragović had signed a five-year contract with Ukrainian club FC Dynamo Kyiv. On 17 May 2015, Dragović helped Dynamo beat Dnipro 1–0 which was the game that won Dynamo their first Ukrainian Premier League title in six years.

On 4 November 2015, Dragović scored his first ever UEFA Champions League goal in the group stage against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on the 78th minute, as well as scoring an own goal on the 34th. Dynamo ended up losing that match 2–1. In that season he helped Dynamo reach the last sixteen of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 16 years, getting knocked out by Manchester City 1–3 on aggregate.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

On 22 August 2016, Dragović signed a 5-year contract with German club Bayer 04 Leverkusen.[8]

International career

Dragović in action against Iceland in 2014

Dragović also used to be part of the national under-17 and under-19 Austrian teams. He was called up for the national team of Austria for their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Romania, but due to an injury he was unable to play. He was called up again by the Austrian head coach Dietmar Constantini for the match against Serbia. He made his international debut in this match on 6 June 2009. Dragović scored his first goal on 18 November 2014 in a 1–2 home defeat to Brazil. He made the final squad for Euro 2016, where he was sent-off in the first game against Hungary,[9] and missed a penalty in the decisive match against Iceland, which ended in a 2–1 defeat.[10]

Personal life

Dragović was born in Vienna to Serbian parents from Belgrade.[11] His favourite team is FK Crvena Zvezda.[11] Dragović attracted serious public criticism when he playfully slapped the Swiss politician Ueli Maurer several times on his head during the celebrations subsequent to the Cup Final in May 2012.[12] After he made further condescending comments stating that he was very reluctant to apologize and said that "on the inside everybody knows, so I believe, that it was very, very much fun doing it", he had to travel to the Bundeshaus in Berne and apologize personally to Ueli Maurer.[13]

Honours

Club

Austria Wien
Basel
Dynamo Kyiv

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "Aleksandar Dragovic kommt zum FCB" (in German). FC Basel Internetseite. 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  2. ↑ Weber, Dominik (2011). "Souveräner FC Basel schlägt Servette Genf mit 3:0" (in German). FC Basel Internetseite. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Jetzt hat Basel den Titel auf sicher" (in German). football.ch. 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Matchtelegram FC Basel 1893 5:3 FC Luzern" (in German). football.ch. 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  5. ↑ Haylett, Trevor (2013). "Basel take heart after Chelsea defeat". Eufa. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  6. 1 2 Schifferle, Michael (2013). "Season review: Switzerland". Eufa. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  7. ↑ SFV (2013). "Telegramm Schweizer Cup Final" (in German). Schweizerischer Fussballverband. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  8. ↑ "Bayer 04 sign Dragovic from Dynamo Kyiv". Bayer Leverkusen. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  9. ↑ . newindianexpress.com http://www.newindianexpress.com/sport/EURO-2016-Hungary-beats-Hungary-2-0-at-Euro-2016/2016/06/14/article3482396.ece. Retrieved 22 June 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ "England 2–1 Austria: Euro 2016 – as it happened!". theguardian.com. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  11. 1 2 Velimirović, I. (11 December 2011). "Dragović: FSS me nije zvao, teška srca sam prihvatio poziv Austrije". Blic.
  12. ↑ Wegmann, Michael (19 May 2012). "Dragovic hatte keine Ahnung, wer Ueli Maurer ist". Blick.
  13. ↑ "Fall Dragovic eskaliert zur Staatsaffäre". 20 Minuten. 24 May 2012.
  14. 1 2 3 "A. Dragović". Soccerway. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  15. ↑ "Best Defender 2012". Golden Player. Archived from the original on 1 June 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "Europa League team of the group stage". UEFA. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2015.

External links

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