Aleksandar Kolarov

Football player infobox


playername = Aleksandar Kolarov
fullname = Aleksandar Kolarov
height = height|m=1.87
nickname = Serbian Roberto Carlos (footballer)|Roberto Carlos] New Siniša Mihajlović
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1985|11|10
cityofbirth = Belgrade
countryofbirth = SFR Yugoslavia
currentclub = Lazio
clubnumber = 3
position = Left back
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 2003–06 2006–07 2007-present
clubs = FK Čukarički OFK Beograd
Lazio
caps(goals) = 37 (0) 53 (7)
31 (1)
nationalyears = 2007
nationalteam = Serbia U-21
nationalcaps(goals) = 8 (2)
pcupdate = 2007-08-26
ntupdate =

Aleksandar Kolarov (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Коларов born November 10, 1985) is a Serbian football (soccer) player who is currently contracted to Italian Serie A giants S.S. Lazio. Kolarov plays as a left back and has represented Serbia at the Under 21 level.

Kolarov has been nicknamed the Serbian Roberto Carlos due to his long-range strikes and similar free-kick abilities to the Brazilian footballer, as seen in the decisive goal scored in the 2007 Under 21 semi-final match against Belgium.

Career

He formerly played for FK Čukarički and OFK Beograd before signing a four-year deal with Lazio in 2007, the team he attests to have long supported. He was named in the 'UEFA Team of the tournament' of the 2007 U-21 Championships held in the Netherlands where they became second. Kolarov has also been compared to Siniša Mihajlović for his great free kicks.

Controversy

Kolarov's switch from FK Čukarički to OFK Beograd in February 2006, during the 2005/06 season winter break, was highly controversial. Under contract with Čukarički at the time, Kolarov filed a request to be released dated January 31, 2006 on the grounds that his "contract just expired" even though it was good until January 2007. Soon after his request, Kolarov's desire to join OFK Beograd became public. Seeing that they had a disgruntled player on their hands, Čukarički set a €300,000 transfer fee for Kolarov due to the fact he still had one more year left on his contract with the club. OFK on the other hand did not even acknowledge this and simply signed Kolarov without paying any fee. Over the coming years Čukarički took the case in front of Serbian Football Association, where all of their official complaints got rejected.

Year and a half later, in summer 2007, when Kolarov was sold by OFK Beograd to S.S. Lazio for €800,000, Čukarički president Aleksandar Mihajlovic publicly stated that Kolarov "was stolen from Čukarički by OFK Beograd". For that, he was immediately punished by Serbian FA on the verbal delict grounds and given a 1 year ban on performing any functions in Serbian football.

The entire Kolarov case was featured on B92 television's investigative journalism programme "Insajder" that focused on criminal activities in Serbian football. The programme claims that Kolarov's case was part of an initiative by Serbian FA president Zvezdan Terzić (formerly the president of OFK) who made sure young promising players signed for OFK and then raise their transfer price by making sure they get playing time in the u-21 national team.

References

External links

* [http://www.sslazio.it/cms/view/home/squadra/prima_squadra/giocatori/alexsandar_kolarov/s154/c345 Official Lazio profile] it