MOZZART SPORT SURVEY: The most successful Serbian football players in this century!

Where exactly do Serbian football players stand compared to others? Who is better, and what about the best one? In terms of regional and international football, where do they stand? Compared to the next-door neighbours, Croats, for instance.

Who is the most valuable Serbian player at the moment? The best, the most decorated? Or let's put it this way - who has been the last Serbian-born player with a significant impact in the Top 5 European leagues? Or, how many Serbs can say they've won something?

For answers to the abovementioned questions, Mozzart Sport journalists opted for a debate in the dying days and hours of 2023. And one that summarizes all the others - who is the most successful Serbian footballer in the 21st century?

We're not talking about the most popular ones because the roads leading to those accolades are bumpy, complicated, and depend on personal preferences. Therefore, we'll stick to trophies and basic mathematical formulas.

Nemanja Vidic, Dejan Stankovic, and Branislav Ivanovic are deservedly in the Top 3 on this list, but there are some surprises among the Top 10.

Though Serbia gained independence in 2006, the starting point of this investigation is 2001. So, what were we searching for?

Take a look at the original survey published at Mozzart Sport Serbia.

We looked at all trophies won by Serbian players since 1 January 2001 in European leagues (excluding the domestic ones) or European competitions.

This list is based on the results of Serbian players in their respective clubs since the Serbian national team hasn't won anything yet. Also, we're not considering the trophies of Serbian players in South America, Asia, Africa, Australia, etc.

RANKING SYSTEM

We did not treat every trophy equally. In order to have the most accurate and realistic order, we used the UEFA classification of leagues. For example, the Serie A title is worth more than the ones of Austria or Switzerland. Not to mention some more drastic examples and differences.

In our ranking system, there are 11 tiers when it comes to domestic competitions, plus five extra for the five international ones.

You should have in mind that the UEFA Champions League trophy - as it represents the best club competition in the world, is worth the most. It is followed by the two strongest national leagues, then the third and fourth, the UEFA Europa League and so on down to the semi-amateur and amateur levels.

It is not easy to assess the strength of the competition - primarily the national ones. When determining the mentioned categories, we mostly stuck to mathematics, that is, the average position of countries on the UEFA ranking of coefficients in the last 23 years.