Matija Nastasić ( sr-cyr, Матија Настасић; born 28 March 1993) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

club Mallorca and the Serbia national team. He began his career at Partizan, and after a loan to Teleoptik joined Italian side Fiorentina in 2011. After one season there he transferred to Manchester City for €15 million and a swap with Stefan Savić, winning the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

in 2014, despite injury problems. In 2015, he joined Schalke, where he remained for seven years, before returning to Fiorentina in 2021. Nastasić made his senior international debut for Serbia in 2012, and has gone on to earn over 30

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

Club career

Partizan

Matija Nastasić is a product of Partizan youth academy. Unable to find space in the Partizan first team setup, he was sent out on loan to Serbian second division side FK Teleoptik from

Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...

. There, the young, left footed centre back made 21 appearances and caught the eye of Fiorentina sporting director at that time, Pantaleo Corvino, who signed him in a deal for €4 million.

Fiorentina

Nastasić spent some time in the

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

youth side but, due to a lack of quality centre backs in the squad and suspensions and injuries, he trained with the first team on many occasions. Fellow Serbian and Fiorentina manager

Siniša Mihajlović Siniša Mihajlović ( sr-Cyrl, Синиша Михајловић, ; 20 February 1969 – 16 December 2022) was a Serbian professional football player and manager. During his career as a footballer, he played as a defender or midfielder. He won ...

handed him his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

debut on 11 September 2011 in a 2–0 win against

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

. He went on to make a further 25 appearances that season but one stood out more than any and it was during this performance that he announced himself to Italian and World football. It was a match between ''La Viola'' and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Nastasić showed many of his qualities – tackling, comfort on the ball, tactical astuteness. It was these qualities that led to a deadline day transfer to English side Manchester City in a move worth €24.4 million, excluding the value of Stefan Savić who was given to Fiorentina as part of the exchange.

Manchester City

Nastasić signed a five-year contract with Manchester City, ending on 30 June 2017. He was part of an exchange deal with Stefan Savić. He made his debut for the club on 18 September 2012, starting in a Champions League away fixture against Real Madrid at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...

. He made his

debut on 29 September in a 2–1 win against Fulham. He cemented his place in the starting XI and his great form won him the club's Player of the Month Award for November. Quickly becoming a fan favourite, the youngster pushed 30-year-old Joleon Lescott out of the starting lineup in centre-back position and was selected to start in the 2013 FA Cup Final, a 1–0 defeat by Wigan Athletic. In May 2013, he was named Manchester City's Young Player of the Season. Nastasić had a less successful season in 2013–14, missing the majority of the campaign through injury. He made 13 league appearances and Manchester City won the

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

Schalke 04

On 13 January 2015, having not featured for City during the season, he was loaned to German club

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

for its remainder. He made his debut on 31 January, starting in a 1–0 home win over Hannover 96. Having not featured in the Champions League that season, he featured in both legs of Schalke's elimination by Real Madrid in the Last 16. On 11 March 2015, Schalke 04 activated the transfer clause on his loan deal, believed to be €12 million, and Nastasić signed a four-year contract with the German club. On 8 August 2015, Nastasić marked his

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

debut by scoring his first goal for the club, in a 5–0 win at MSV Duisburg in the first round of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

. In June 2018, along with goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann, Nastasić sign a contract extension with Schalke to stay with the club until the summer of 2022.

Return to Fiorentina

In August 2021, Nastasić signed for Fiorentina again following Schalke 04's relegation from the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

as a replacement for Germán Pezzella, who moved to

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

Balompie the same week.

Mallorca

On 1 September 2022, Nastasić signed a one-year contract with Mallorca in Spain, with an option to extend.

International career

Having already represented Serbia's youth sides, Nastasić made his debut for the Serbian national team on 29 February 2012, in a match against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. He was named in Serbia's preliminary squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, but failed to make the 23-man final squad.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Manchester City *

: 2013–14 *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

runner-up:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Individual * Manchester City Young Player of the Year:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nastasic, Matija 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Valjevo Serbian footballers Association football defenders FK Partizan players FK Teleoptik players ACF Fiorentina players Manchester City F.C. players FC Schalke 04 players RCD Mallorca players Serbian First League players Serie A players Premier League players Bundesliga players FA Cup Final players Serbia youth international footballers Serbia under-21 international footballers Serbia international footballers Serbian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain Serbian expatriate sportspeople in England Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Spain