Aston Villa know from first-hand experience, especially during Jack Grealish’s outstading 2020/21 campaign, that the sight of a full-back getting the better of Manchester City’s £100 million treble-winner is not a particularly common one.
As such, that only makes the performance of Kosta Nedeljkovic – going up against Jack Grealish and Manchester City three days before his 18th birthday – even more impressive, the teenage defender more than holding his own against Pep Guardiola’s £100 million England international in a Champions League group-stage clash.
Grealish, the former Aston Villa captain, limped off at half-time with an injury. But, in 45 minutes he spent on the pitch in the Serbian capital – Red Star making City sweat for an hard-fought 3-2 victory – Nedeljkovic left no one in any doubt about his ability to step up, to defy his complete lack of top-level experience, and go eyeball-to-eyeball with one of the most technically gifted – not to mention expensive – attackers in world football.
Aston Villa to sign Kosta Nedeljkovic from Red Star Belgrade
Nedeljkovic, HITC Football understands, is now set to follow in Grealish’s Villa Park footsteps. Unai Emery’s side have had an £8 million bid accepted by Red Star, only the final crossing of the I’s and dotting of the T’s remaining as Aston Villa look to finalise the signing of the Serbia Under 19 international.
“His athleticism is a key quality. He is tall, fast, he has a wide frame, and lots of stamina,” Kristijan Plazonja, a Serbian football expert, tells the Birmingham Mail.
“He has excellent movement without the ball and also has a lot of untapped defensive potential.”
If his ‘defensive potential’ was on full show during that Champions League clash against the reigning European champions, then Nedeljkovic also demonstrated his qualities at the other end of the pitch.
Racing down the flank and cutting in onto his weaker left foot, Nedeljkovic threatened to test Man City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega from long range.
‘A top ten Premier league player’
“Kosta is very intelligent and is aware of his current limitations. He will always try to do what’s best for the team and has no ego. The technical part of his game requires some refinement, including his end-product,” Plazonja accepts.
“The attacking movement he has and the threat he causes, plus his athleticism reminds of (Inter Milan’s) Denzel Dumfries. But I’d say Kosta is more intelligent as a footballer. Right now he has much less of a goal threat.”
The pundit believes that Nedeljkovic has everything in his locker to become a ‘top ten Premier League player’. As long as he finds himself in ‘the right hands’, that is.
And you certainly won’t find many coaches better equipped than Unai Emery squeeze every ounce of potential out of a teenager who went head-to-head with Grealish and emerged with his reputation enhanced.
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