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| | nationalyears2 = 2006 | nationalteam2 = ] | nationalcaps2 = 2 | nationalgoals2 = 0 | | nationalyears2 = 2006 | nationalteam2 = ] | nationalcaps2 = 2 | nationalgoals2 = 0 | ||
| | nationalyears3 = 2009– | nationalteam3 = ] | nationalcaps3 = 31 | nationalgoals3 = 2 | | nationalyears3 = 2009– | nationalteam3 = ] | nationalcaps3 = 31 | nationalgoals3 = 2 | ||
| | pcupdate = 17:11, |
| pcupdate = 17:11, 27 October 2012 (UTC) | ||
| | ntupdate = 17:08, 5 June 2012 (UTC) | | ntupdate = 17:08, 5 June 2012 (UTC) | ||
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Revision as of 14:07, 27 October 2012
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Neven Subotić | ||
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Centre back | ||
| Team information | |||
| Current team | Borussia Dortmund | ||
| Number | 4 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1996–1999 | TSV Schwarzenberg | ||
| 2005 | IMG Soccer Academy | ||
| 2006 | South Florida Bulls | ||
| 2006–2007 | Mainz 05 | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2007–2008 | Mainz 05 | 34 | (4) |
| 2008– | Borussia Dortmund | 132 | (11) |
| International career | |||
| 2005 | United States U17 | 10 | (0) |
| 2006 | United States U20 | 2 | (0) |
| 2009– | Serbia | 31 | (2) |
|
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 17:11, 27 October 2012 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17:08, 5 June 2012 (UTC) | |||
Neven Subotić (Serbian Cyrillic: Heвeн Cубoтић) (born 10 December 1988) is a Serbian American footballer who currently plays for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. He made his first-team debut in the 2006–07 season for 1. FSV Mainz 05. In 2008, he signed with Dortmund. He also competes internationally for Serbia.
Early life
Born in Banja Luka, SR Bosnia-Herzegovina to Bosnian Serb parents, father Željko from the village of Kulaši and mother Svjetlana from Brestovo, Subotić spent his early childhood in the town of Prnjavor. In 1990, when Neven was two years old, his father went to Germany in search of work. In 1994, with the Bosnian War already raging, the rest of the family including five-year-old Subotić, his sister and their mother joined the father in Germany, settling in the town of Schömberg. Subotić took up football at the age of 7 with the local outfit TSV Schwarzenberg.
In the late 1990s Subotić family's residence authorization in Germany expired and in order to avoid being deported back to Bosnia they opted to move to the USA in 1999. They settled in Salt Lake City where Subotić's father had a cousin. Subotić played football with Sparta Gold and Impact Black youth clubs.
Within two years the family was on the move again, this time to Bradenton, Florida so that Subotić sister Natalija could pursue a tennis career at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. The city also happens to be the base for the United States U-17 national team. Subotić trained on his own in G.T. Bray Park where he got spotted by Keith Fulk, one of the US team's assistant coaches who then informed the team's head coach John Ellinger about Subotić. After arranging a tryout, they offered Subotić a spot in the residency camp. At the time he was not attached to any club sides, but eventually started playing with the University of South Florida team.
While playing with the U-17 team in the Netherlands, Subotić was approached by player agent Steve Kelly who inquired about his career plans and offered a possibility of playing in Europe. After impressing at the tryout for 1. FSV Mainz 05, young Subotić was on his way there, initially playing for the club's youth and fourth-division teams (1. FSV Mainz 05 II).
Club career
Mainz 05
Subotić made his professional debut for Mainz 05 in the last match of the 2006–07 season against Bayern Munich as his team was relegated from the Bundesliga. In the 2. Bundesliga the following season, he seized a starting role in what was the leagues best defense, conceding only 37 goals. The team finished in fourth place, missing the promotion back to Bundesliga by only two points.
In the 2008 summer off-season, Mainz head coach Jürgen Klopp got a job coaching Borussia Dortmund and was instrumental in bringing Subotić along with him.
Borussia Dortmund
On 4 June 2008, it was announced that Subotić had signed with Borussia Dortmund on a 5-year contract. He debuted for his new club in the unofficial German Supercup match against Bayern Munich, which Dortmund won 2–1. Subotić's defensive displays quickly turned a lot of heads. In December 2008, he was named in the ideal 11 team of the first part of the 2008–09 Bundesliga season alongside such defensive stars as Lúcio and Philip Lahm. In addition to confident and effective defensive displays far beyond his years, Subotić was also a factor on the offensive end - scoring 6 league goals throughout the season.
In June 2009, he signed a new contract which last until summer 2014. In the 2009–10 Bundesliga season, Subotić was one of only four players in the entire league to play every minute of every league match.
On 15 December 2010, Subotić got his first goal ever in the European competition, scoring a header off a corner at Sevilla in the Europa League to tie the score at 2–2. The match was a decider on which of the two teams would go on from the group stage as Borussia needed to win away, while Sevilla was fine even with a draw. It ended 2-2 and Borussia got eliminated. Throughout the 2010-11 winter transfer window, Subotić was repeatedly linked with a move to Chelsea as the London club decided to look for a central defender following injuries to Alex and general poor defensive form. In mid January, the Blues reportedly even submitted a formal offer to the tune of £17.5 million, but Borussia turned it down.
Career statistics
- As of 27 October 2012
Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2006–07||rowspan="2"|1. FSV Mainz 05||Bundesliga||1||0||0||0||0||0||1||0 |- |2007–08||2. Bundesliga||33||4||1||0||0||0||34||4 |- |2008–09||rowspan="5"|Borussia Dortmund||rowspan="5"|Bundesliga||33||6||1||0||2||0||36||6 |- |2009–10||34||3||3||0||0||0||37||3 |- |2010–11||31||1||2||1||8||1||41||3 |- |2011–12||25||0||5||0||4||0||34||0 |- |2012–13||9||1||1||0||3||0||13||1 |- Template:Football player statistics 2 Template:Football player statistics 3166||15||13||1||17||1||196||17 Template:Football player statistics 5166||15||13||1||17||1||196||17 Template:Football player statistics end
International career
Youth level
Subotić was part of the squad selected and coached by John Hackworth for the US entry in the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship during September 2005 in Peru. Sixteen years of age at the time, he entered all three group matches as a sub during the final five minutes. In the quarterfinal versus the Netherlands that the US team lost 0–2 and got eliminated, he played from the start, but got red carded in the 73rd minute.
He has also made two appearances for the USA U-20 team. What would prove to be his last one took place in November 2006 in a friendly after which head coach Thomas Rongen criticized Subotić, who had signed for Mainz several months earlier, for "not accelerating over there to the point where we feel he belongs on the team". Next summer, Rongen controversially did not select him to play in the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada – picking defenders such as Nathan Sturgis, Anthony Wallace, Julian Valentin, Ofori Sarkodie, Tim Ward, and Amaechi Igwe ahead of Subotić – decision that has resulted in Rongen receiving a fair amount of criticism. While Rongen insisted that a groin injury was to blame, there has been considerable speculation since then that Subotić was so stung by Rongen's criticism that he decided to reconsider his international future:
Well, Rongen certainly said some discouraging and false things about me. Never in my life have I heard that a high level coach publicly criticizes a player. Professional coaches do that one-on-one with the player. I find this disappointing, because a few months later after Rongen said I was not good enough for the U-20s, I played a very good season and started getting calls from various countries for the full men's team. I still don't know what he saw in the other players, and what he didn't see in me.
Full squad
Subotić was eligible to represent the United States, Serbia, or Bosnia-Herzegovina. During September 2008, when the issue of his national team eligibility first started getting wider coverage in the football media, playing for Croatia or even Germany were mentioned as possibilities as well, however both options were soon revealed to be media concoctions more than anything else. Bosnia-Herzegovina fell out of the running early as Subotić publicly rejected overtures by the country's football officials and head coach Miroslav Blažević.
By late fall 2008, it became clear that only Serbia figured in his international choice. Citing sources close to Subotić's family, many reports in the Serbian press appeared about his decision to play for Serbia already being made, but waiting for the right moment to state it publicly since he had until 10 December 2009 (his 21st birthday) to declare his choice. In mid December 2008 Subotić informed national team head coach Radomir Antić about his decision to represent Serbia. Then in late December 2008, Subotić notified US Soccer Federation about his decision – the first official step in the process of changing national team attachment.
2010 World Cup qualifying
On 28 March 2009, Subotić made his debut for the Serbian national team, in the 2010 World Cup qualifier against Romania in Constanţa that Serbia won 2–3. Coming on as a 65th minute sub for striker Marko Pantelić with Serbia leading 1-3, Subotić played the slightly altered central defensive role as Antić looked to protect the lead for the remaining thirty minutes in the crucial qualifying match. Afterwards, head coach Antić was very supportive of his new young defender, comparing him to Fernando Hierro. After starting against Sweden in a friendly, Subotić's first competitive start took place versus Austria on 6 June just after the end of club season, partnering Nemanja Vidić in central defence (if only for one half since Vidić got injured and replaced by Antonio Rukavina) - the contest in which Serbia displayed a very letarghic overall team effort and was lucky to win 1-0 after numerous defensive breakdowns. Four days later on 10 June 2009, Subotić scored his first goal for Serbia in a fairly straightforward 2–0 win over Faroe Islands. For the next qualifier at the end of summer against France - Serbia's chance to seal qualification by winning at home - Subotić got benched and didn't enter the contest at all as Antić preferred Aleksandar Luković to partner Vidić on this occasion. The same central defensive pairing started the next qualifier against Romania at home (another chance to automatically qualify with a win after failing to beat the French), while Subotić got a chance to run out for the last 15 minutes as a sub for Vidić with the score 2-0 for Serbia as it eventually clinched the World Cup spot with a 5-0 thrashing. In the last meaningless qualifier versus Lithuania, Subotić played the full 90 in a free role on the wing as Antić looked to experiment and try different setups without any fear of dropping points.
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Though he came in with high praise and even higher hopes, Subotić's initial performances for Serbia weren't stellar. Following unconvincing defensive displays and fairly frequent mistakes, he had to deal with plenty of criticism in the Serbian press.
2010 World Cup
At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Subotić was left out of the starting lineup for the opening group stage match versus Ghana, with Vidić and Luković the preferred choices for central defensive spots by coach Antić. Subotić's benching came as a result of his poor starting displays in the friendlies leading up to the World Cup versus New Zealand, Poland, and Cameroon. However, during the second half of the Ghana match, Luković got sent off, forcing Antić to bring Subotić on for the remaining 14 minutes. Due to Luković's one-match suspension as a result of the red card, Subotić started the next match in a must-win situation versus Germany, putting in a confident and effective performance against German forwards who despite mounting great pressure spells throughout the match ultimately failed to score as Serbia recorded a famous 1-0 win. Playing against the players he knew well from Bundesliga, Subotić's showed excellent positional play with several crucial reactions, including the clearance in front of Mesut Özil to prevent the rebound following goalkeeper Vladimir Stojković's penalty save on Lukas Podolski. For the group decider against Australia, Subotić was back on the bench as Luković returned from suspension.
Euro 2012 qualifying
Subotić returned in the starting lineup for the Euro 2012 qualifiers that began under beleaguered head coach Antić (who was serving a four-match touchline ban as a result of the verbal altercation with the Uruguayan referee at the World Cup). The youngster played full ninety minutes at Faroe Islands in the opener and also in the following match versus Slovenia. Subotić's somewhat inconsistent form continued as he established strong presence in central defence with Vidić, but also the duo's hesitant reaction to Milivoje Novaković's run off the ball led to Slovenian go-ahead goal. Following the Slovenian draw, Antić got fired and Pižon Petrović took over the job. Subotić got called up for the new coach's debut match versus Estonia, but was an unused sub as Serbia disastrously lost a competitive match at home for the first time in nine years. Pižon gave Subotić a starting assignment for the next qualifier away at Italy in October 2010, but the infamous contest in Genoa got interrupted after six minutes due to rioting by the traveling Serbian hooligans.
As the qualifying resumed in late March 2011 Subotić got the start at home versus Northern Ireland. Since center back Luković announced his retirement from international football before this match, 22-year-old Subotić pretty much became an automatic first-team choice. However, partnering Milan Biševac in central defence (on instead of injured Vidić), Subotić again had a shaky performance as the duo failed to properly deal with Chris Brunt's set piece cross that led to Gareth McAuley's headed goal. Furthermore, Subotić picked up an injury during the match that ruled him out of the next qualifier four days later at Estonia.
International goals
- Scores and results list Serbia's goal tally first.
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 10 June 2009 | Tórsvøllur, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands |  Faroe Islands |
2–0 | 2–0 | 2010 World Cup qualifier | ||||||||||
| 2. | 5 June 2012 | Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden |  Sweden |
1–1 | 1–2 | Friendly
HonoursClub
Other activitiesIn 2010 Subotić recorded a dance song called "Kings of Africa" along with Serbian rapper Filip Filipi. References
External links
Template:United States U17 squad 2005
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- 1988 births
- Living people
- People from Banja Luka
- Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- American people of Serbian descent
- Serbian footballers
- Serbia international footballers
- Serbian expatriate footballers
- University of South Florida alumni
- Expatriate footballers in Germany
- South Florida Bulls men's soccer players
- 1. FSV Mainz 05 players
- Borussia Dortmund players
- Association football central defenders
- American soccer players
- American expatriate soccer players
- 2010 FIFA World Cup players
- Fußball-Bundesliga players