Saša Zdjelar

Saša Zdjelar
Zdjelar with CSKA Moscow in 2022
Personal information
Date of birth (1995-03-20) 20 March 1995 (age 29)
Place of birth Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Position(s) Defensive midfielder
Team information
Current team
 CSKA Moscow
Number 5
Youth career
OFK Beograd
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2011–2015 OFK Beograd 62 (0)
2015–2018 Olympiacos 12 (0)
2017 → Mallorca (loan) 15 (0)
2018 → Partizan (loan) 12 (2)
2018–2022 Partizan 126 (3)
2022– CSKA Moscow 70 (1)
International career‡
2011–2012 Serbia U17[a] 6 (1)
2013–2014 Serbia U19[a] 8 (0)
2014–2015 Serbia U20 12 (0)
2015–2017 Serbia U21 6 (0)
2016– Serbia 9 (0)
Medal record
Gold medal – first place FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23 November 2024
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23:19, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

Saša Zdjelar (Serbian Cyrillic: Саша Здјелар; born 20 March 1995) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays for Russian club CSKA Moscow. His primary position is defensive midfielder and he also plays centre-back.

Club career

Zdjelar made his senior debut for OFK Beograd in a 3–0 home league win over Novi Pazar on 3 December 2011, aged 16.[2] He was later sold to Greek champions Olympiacos in 2013, but remained at his parent club for the next two years. In total, Zdjelar recorded 67 competitive appearances with the Romantičari.

In the summer of 2015, Zdjelar eventually moved to Greece and joined Olympiacos. He made his debut for the club on 28 October 2015, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–2 Greek Cup draw versus Platanias. On 13 January 2016, Zdjelar scored his first ever senior goal for Olympiacos in a 6–0 Greek Cup win over Chania.[3]

On 13 January 2017, Zdjelar was loaned to Spanish Segunda División side RCD Mallorca until the end of the season.[4]

On 29 January 2018, he was loaned to Partizan until the end of the 2017–18 season, after being put on Olympiacos' out-of-favour list.[5] At the end of the 2017–18 season, Partizan announced the signing of the player for an estimated fee at the range of €500,000 [6] On 23 May 2018, Zdjelar scored the winner against Mladost Lučani, in the Serbian Cup final.[7]

In 2018–19 season, Zdjelar won his second Serbian Cup trophy and collected 45 appearances for Partizan, across three competitions.

After an assist by Umar Sadiq, Zdjelar scored a goal from 20 meters away in a 4–0 win over Vojvodina in the Derby of Serbia.[8] In 2019–20 season, interrupted due to global pandemic of COVID-19, Zdjelar was again the most capped Partizan player, amassing 42 appearances (and skipping only 3 games) across all competitions.[9]

In July 2020, he wore Partizan's captain armband for the first time.

On 28 July 2022, Zdjelar signed a contract with Russian Premier League club CSKA Moscow for three years with an option to extend.[10]

International career

Zdjelar represented Serbia at the 2014 UEFA Under-19 Championship, as the team was eliminated in the semi-final by Portugal after penalties.[11] He was also a member of the team that won the gold medal at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.[12]

On 31 May 2016, Zdjelar made his full international debut for Serbia, coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 friendly win over Israel. He subsequently appeared as an injury-time substitute in a 1–1 friendly draw with Russia at Stade Louis II five days later.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 23 November 2024[13][14]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup[b] Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
OFK Beograd 2011–12 Serbian SuperLiga 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 0
2012–13 Serbian SuperLiga 15 0 1 0 0 0 – 16 0
2013–14 Serbian SuperLiga 27 0 3 0 0 0 – 30 0
2014–15 Serbian SuperLiga 19 0 1 0 0 0 – 20 0
Total 62 0 5 0 0 0 – 67 0
Olympiacos 2015–16 Super League Greece 8 0 6 1 2 0 – 16 1
2016–17 Super League Greece 0 0 0 0 1[c] 0 – 1 0
2017–18 Super League Greece 4 0 2 0 5[c] 0 – 11 0
Total 12 0 8 1 8 0 – 28 1
Mallorca (loan) 2016–17 Segunda División 15 0 0 0 0 0 – 15 0
Partizan (loan) 2017–18 Serbian SuperLiga 12 2 4 1 1[d] 0 – 17 3
Partizan 2018–19 Serbian SuperLiga 32 1 5 0 8[d] 0 – 45 1
2019–20 Serbian SuperLiga 28 1 4 0 12[d] 0 – 44 1
2020–21 Serbian SuperLiga 31 1 4 0 3[d] 0 – 38 1
2021–22 Serbian SuperLiga 32 0 4 0 14[e] 0 – 50 0
2022–23 Serbian SuperLiga 3 0 0 0 0 0 – 3 0
Total 126 3 17 0 37 0 – 180 3
CSKA Moscow 2022–23 Russian Premier League 27 0 11 0 — — 38 0
2023–24 Russian Premier League 28 1 8 0 — 1[f] 0 37 1
2024–25 Russian Premier League 15 0 6 0 — — 21 0
Total 70 1 25 0 — 1 0 96 1
Career total 297 6 59 2 46 0 1 0 403 8
  1. ^ a b Only official UEFA matches included
  2. ^ Includes Serbian Cup, Greek Football Cup, Russian Cup
  3. ^ a b Appearance(s) in UEFA Champions League
  4. ^ a b c d Appearance(s) in UEFA Europa League
  5. ^ Appearances in UEFA Europa Conference League
  6. ^ Appearance in Russian Super Cup

International

As of match played 18 November 2024
National team Year Apps Goals
Serbia 2016 2 0
2020 1 0
2024 6 0
Total 9 0

Honours

Olympiacos

Partizan

CSKA Moscow

Serbia U20

References

  1. ^ "Saša Zdjelar" (in Russian). PFC CSKA Moscow. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  2. ^ "ROMANTIČARI POBEDILI PAZARCE" (in Serbian). ofkbeograd.co.rs. 3 December 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  3. ^ "Upisali se Zdjelar i Stanisavljević (VIDEO)" (in Serbian). mondo.rs. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Sasa Zdjelar llega cedido del Olympiacos" [Sasa Zdjelar arrives on loan from Olympiacos] (in Spanish). RCD Mallorca. 13 January 2017. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  5. ^ team, Onsports (29 January 2018). "Ολυμπιακός: Στην Παρτιζάν ο Ζντιέλαρ". Onsports.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  6. ^ "THE LOANEES NOT RETURNING TO OLYMPIACOS". www.agonasport.com (in Greek). 29 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Partizan posle preokreta osvojio Kup!". N1 Srbija (in Serbian (Latin script)). Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  8. ^ "PARTIZAN VS. VOJVODINA 4 - 0". Soccerway. 2 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Partizanov perpetuum mobile: Saša Zdjelar odigrao 42 utakmice u sezoni | MozzartSport". www.mozzartsport.com. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Саша Зделар — игрок ПФК ЦСКА!" (in Russian). CSKA Moscow. 28 July 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  11. ^ "Portugal prevail in shoot-out to end Serbia reign". uefa.com. 28 July 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  12. ^ "Ecstasy in Auckland as Serbia make history". fifa.com. 20 June 2015. Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  13. ^ Saša Zdjelar at Soccerway
  14. ^ "Saša Zdjelar". superleaguegreece.net. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  15. ^ "Суперфинал LIVE. ЦСКА победил "Краснодар" в серии послематчевых пенальти" (in Russian). Russian Football Union. 11 June 2023.