Goran Slavkovski (; born 8 April 1989) is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He made his only

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

appearance for

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

at the age of 17 years and 1 month – a then club record. Born in Sweden, he represented the Macedonia U21 internationally.

Club career

Early career

Earlier in his career, Slavkovski was nicknamed " Ibrahimović II", because of his similar stature and style of play to the Swedish striker, and as he also played for FBK Balkan and

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

Inter Milan

Slavkovski made his first team debut with

at the age of 17 years and one month on 7 May 2006 in a

league match against

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, taking the field at the 83rd minute, thus becoming the youngest footballer ever to play for Inter. This record has since been broken by

Federico Bonazzoli Federico Bonazzoli (born 21 May 1997) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Cremonese. Club career Inter Milan Bonazzoli played at youth level for Ghedi and Montechiari, before joining Inter Milan at the age of ...

. Previously, the record was held by

Giuseppe Bergomi Giuseppe "Beppe" Bergomi (; born 22 December 1963) is an Italian former professional footballer who spent his entire career at Inter Milan. He is regarded as one of the greatest Italian defenders of all time, and as one of the best of his genera ...

. He made his

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

debut against Messina Peloro, on 29 November 2006.

Sheffield United

On 30 January 2008, Inter reached a loan agreement with

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

which fell through after he failed a medical and would be unlikely to challenge for a first team place. The next day Inter announced to have loaned Slavkovski to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

. On 18 March 2008, Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell claimed that he was still not ready to play in the first team stating that he would play in the reserve team where he could be assessed. Slavkovski returned to Italy at the end of the season without having made a first team appearance for the Blades. He did, however, make six appearances for the reserve team, scoring twice.

2008–09 season and beyond

On 27 June 2008, Slavkovski confirmed a five-year deal with

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

. It was subsequently confirmed that he was in a very weak physical condition as a result of unsporting behavior and that it would have taken weeks for him to regain fitness. The announced transfer was later cancelled due to his condition, and Slavovski remained contracted with Inter. In October 2008, he started training with

, confirming he was still an Inter player and announcing that he will stay on in Sweden for the remainder of the year. His contract with Inter expired in June 2009, and was not extended; since then, he allegedly rejected a number of offers from

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

and

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

clubs. On 22 January 2010, it was announced that

VfL Bochum II VfL Bochum II (also known as VfL Bochum Amateure, VfL Bochum U-21 or VfL Bochum U-23) is the reserve team of German football club VfL Bochum. The team has made two appearances in the first round of the DFB-Pokal, in 1984–85 and 2005–06. Sinc ...

had signed Slavkovski. He signed a six-month contract with the option to renew the contract. Slavkovski also had a trial with

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) *Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; anc ...

. He was however released by the end of the season, after failing to play a single game for the club's first team. Since then, his career has faded into obscurity and, in 2011, he returned to Sweden where he briefly joined third division amateurs

IF Limhamn Bunkeflo IF Limhamn Bunkeflo may refer to * IF Limhamn Bunkeflo (men's) *IF Limhamn Bunkeflo (women's) IF Limhamn Bunkeflo 07, commonly known as LB07, is a football club based in Malmö, Sweden. It is the biggest football club from the Scania region. T ...

International career

Recently the media reported a "war" going on between the

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia * Mac ...

and Swedish football federations, in attempt to get him to join their national football teams. Slavkovski and his father stated that it would be an honour to play for his country of origin, Macedonia. Slavkovski also met the Macedonian Prime Minister where they talked about his chances playing for the Macedonian national team. The Prime Minister handed him a football jersey with his name on the backside. On 11 June 2008, Slavkovski finally spoke out about his international career and decided to play for Macedonia. In August 2008 Slavkovski made his debut for the Macedonia U21 national team, in the qualification matches against Estonia and Norway. He has made three scoreless appearances hitherto.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

Inter News
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Slavkovski, Goran 1989 births Living people Footballers from Malmö Swedish people of Macedonian descent Men's association football forwards Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Macedonian men's footballers 21st-century Macedonian sportsmen North Macedonia men's under-21 international footballers Malmö FF players Inter Milan players Sheffield United F.C. players VfL Bochum II players IF Limhamn Bunkeflo (men) players Serie A players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Macedonian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in England Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Germany 21st-century Swedish sportsmen Ettan Fotboll players