Failed Wonderkid #11- Adem Ljajic

Biodata

Full Name: Adem Ljajic

Nationality: Serbian

Date of Birth: 29 September 1991

Position: Attacking Midfielder

Current Club: Besiktas

Current Market Price: 11.00mil Euro (Updated on Jan 2020)

Highest Market Price: 15.00mil Euro (Jan 2016)

Former Clubs:

2008- 2010 Partizan

2010- 2013 Fiorentina

2013- 2016 Roma

2015- 2016 Internazionale (loan)

2016- 2018 Torino

International Career:

2010 Serbia

Achievement:

Partizan

2008- 2009 Serbian SuperLiga

2008- 2009 Serbian Cup

Career

There are a lot of ‘What If…’ questions in this footballing world. A certain decision can lead to a different direction for a football player’s career, a different result in a competition or even the fate of a football club. Unfortunately, no one will know how it will be diverted and this question remains a mystery. This statement is very suitable for the main character of this article. Let us see which ‘What If…’ question is remain unsolved for him, Adem Ljajic.

Adem Ljajic started his footballing career in FK Josanica in the Serbian lower-tier club. In 2005, Ljajic joined the Serbian giants Partizan at the age of 14. He made his first appearance for the club at the age of 17 in the second qualifying round of UEFA Champions League against Inter Baku. On November of the same year, Ljajic had scored his first-ever senior goal in a league match against OFK Beograd. Despite this is still the beginning of his career, Ljajic had certainly caught the attention from Manchester United and offered him a trial. On January 2009, Manchester United had announced the signing of him and his teammate Zoran Tosic. Tosic will join United immediately and Ljajic will remain at Partizan on the remainder of 2009. Suddenly, the world was at his feet.

However, things are not going to Ljajic way as Manchester United decided not to take up their option to sign him due to the complication of obtaining the work permit on January 2010. After that, Ljajic signed for Fiorentina on that very same transfer window. He made his debut on the end of the month and spent most of his half-season in Florence settle down. Ljajic truly blossoms in Italy under the management of his compatriot Sinisa Mihajlovic as the head coach. Ljajic scored his first goal in Italy under Mihajlovic and contributed 3 goals and 7 assists in all competition. Sadly, Ljajic was known for his hot temper in Italy too. At the same time, he also gets his first national cap for Serbia on November 2010 too. On May 2012, Ljajic was substituted in a match against Novara. His reaction to this substitution was to sarcastically applaud the manager Delio Rossi, who grabbed and attempted to punch Ljajic. Fiorentina announced after the match that Rossi had been dismissed as manager and that they would take proportionate measures against Ljajic. He also was removed from his country's squad by head coach Siniša Mihajlović after refusing to sing the Serbian national anthem in a 2–0 friendly loss against Spain on 28 May 2012 due to personal reasons.

Ljajic performance in Florence was actually decent. In his last season in Fiorentina, he scored 12 goals and registered 5 assists in all competitions. This performance had certainly convinced AS Roma to sign him in the 2013-2014 season. In his debut season in Rome, Ljajic registered 6 goals and 6 assists in all competition. He carries on his performance in the next season when he registered 8 goals and 2 assists in the league alone. Ljajic passing accuracy was amazing as he registered 90.9% and 89.3% in the two seasons in Rome respectively. On August 2015, Ljajic signed for Internazionale on a season-long loan with an option to buy. However, his stats dropped compared with his performance in AS Roma. Ljajic only registered 3 goals and 3 assists in all competition. Ljajic passing performance only also dropped from 89.3% to 87.5%. His performance could not convince Internazionale to exercise the buyout option.

After Internazionale did not exercise their purchase option, Ljajic was sold to Torino on July 2016. He rediscovered his form in Turin and regain his reputation as a good quality player. He scored 16 goals and registered 18 assists in 53 games in two seasons in Torino. Ljajic even earned himself a spot on Serbian national team squad in FIFA World Cup 2018. Which he appeared in all three Serbian games. On August 2018, Ljajic joined Besiktas on loan. Which he again impressed in Turkey that convinced the Turkish giant to sign him on a permanent basis. Even though he is enjoying a relatively decent career, it still couldn’t stop us the imagine what if Ljajic managed to sign for Manchester United, would it be a better pathway for him?

Verdict

Disappointment Rate: 6/10. It is not fully a disappointment. However, it is still not the career projection that the football fans expected him to reach. Even though he is not the world-beater that most of us expect him to be, Ljajic will always be the respectable player to play with or play against.