Aleksandar Dragović

Aleksandar Dragović (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Драговић, pronounced [aleksǎːndar drâɡoʋitɕ, alěksaːn-]; born 6 March 1991) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a defender for German club Bayer Leverkusen and Austria national team. He is well known for his performances as a tough-tackling centre-back.

Aleksandar Dragović
Dragović in 2016
Personal information
Full name Aleksandar Dragović[1]
Date of birth (1991-03-06) 6 March 1991
Place of birth Vienna, Austria
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Position(s) Centre back
Club information
Current team
 Bayer Leverkusen
Number 6
Youth career
1997–2009 Austria Wien
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008–2009 Austria Wien II 8 (2)
2009–2011 Austria Wien 66 (1)
2011–2013 FC Basel 77 (4)
2013–2016 Dynamo Kyiv 66 (0)
2016– Bayer Leverkusen 56 (2)
2017–2018 → Leicester City (loan) 11 (0)
National team‡
2007–2008 Austria U17 11 (2)
2008–2009 Austria U19 6 (2)
2009– Austria 84 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15 November 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 15 November 2020

Club career

Basel

Dragović started his career by playing in the youth teams of Austrian giants Austria Wien and started playing for their B-squad in 2007. As of 1 February 2011 Dragović transferred to FC Basel in the Swiss Super League.[3] He made his team debut in the 3:0 home win over FC St. Gallen. At the end of the 2010–11 Swiss Super League season Dragović won the Swiss Championship title with FC Basel. In July 2011 he played with his new club in the Uhrencup and won the tournament. He scored his first Super League goal in the 3–0 home win against Servette FC on 1 October 2011.[4] At the end of the 2011–12 season Dragović won the Double, the League Championship title[5] and the Swiss Cup[6] with Basel.

During Basel's 2012–13 season the team missed their Champions League aim. But in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League Basel advanced as far as the semifinals,[7] meaning that they played a total of 20 European matches. Dragović missed solely the second leg of the semi-final at Stamford Bridge due to a yellow card suspension, but had played in all the other European ties.

In the domestic championship he played in 32 of the 36 games. He scored three goals in the domestic league this season, all three being against Servette. At the end of the Swiss Super League season 2012–13 Dragovic won the Championship title[8] and was Swiss Cup runner up with Basel.[9]

Dynamo Kyiv

On 26 July 2013, Dragović had signed a five-year contract with Ukrainian club FC Dynamo Kyiv. On 17 May 2015, Dragović helped Dynamo beat Dnipro 1–0 which was the game that won Dynamo their first Ukrainian Premier League title in six years.

On 4 November 2015, Dragović scored his first ever UEFA Champions League goal in the group stage against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on the 78th minute, as well as scoring an own goal on the 34th. Dynamo ended up losing that match 2–1. In that season he helped Dynamo reach the last sixteen of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 16 years, getting knocked out by Manchester City 1–3 on aggregate.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

On 22 August 2016, Dragović signed a five-year contract with German club Bayer 04 Leverkusen.[10]

Leicester City (loan)

On 31 August 2017, Dragović joined Premier League club Leicester City on a season-long loan from Bayer Leverkusen.[11]

International career
Dragović in action against Iceland in 2014

Dragović also used to be part of the national under-17 and under-19 Austrian teams. He was called up for the national team of Austria for their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Romania, but due to an injury he was unable to play. He was called up again by the Austrian head coach Dietmar Constantini for the match against Serbia. He made his international debut in this match on 6 June 2009. Dragović scored his first goal on 18 November 2014 in a 1–2 home defeat to Brazil. He made the final squad for Euro 2016, where he was sent-off in the first game against Hungary,[12] and missed a penalty in the decisive match against Iceland, which ended in a 2–1 defeat.[13]

Personal life

Dragović was born in Vienna to parents from Belgrade.[14] His favourite team is Red Star Belgrade.[14] Dragović attracted serious public criticism when he playfully slapped the Swiss politician Ueli Maurer several times on his head during the celebrations subsequent to the Cup Final in May 2012.[15] After he made further condescending comments stating that he was very reluctant to apologize and said that "on the inside everybody knows, so I believe, that it was very, very much fun doing it", he had to travel to the Bundeshaus in Berne and apologize personally to Ueli Maurer.[16]

Career statistics

Club
As of match played 6 August 2020[17]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup League Cup Europe Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Austria Wien II 2008–09 Austrian First League 82————82
Austria Wien 2008–09 Austrian Bundesliga 16000—1[lower-alpha 1]0—170
2009–10 Austrian Bundesliga 32010—9[lower-alpha 1]0—420
2010–11 Austrian Bundesliga 18120—6[lower-alpha 1]0—261
Total 66130—160—851
FC Basel 2010–11 Swiss Super League 16010—00—170
2011–12 Swiss Super League 28130—8[lower-alpha 2]0—391
2012–13 Swiss Super League 32330—19[lower-alpha 3]0—543
2013–14 Swiss Super League 1000—00—10
Total 77470—270—1114
Dynamo Kyiv 2013–14 Ukrainian Premier League 21050—9[lower-alpha 1]0—350
2014–15 Ukrainian Premier League 24061—10[lower-alpha 1]01[lower-alpha 4]0411
2015–16 Ukrainian Premier League 17040—8[lower-alpha 2]11[lower-alpha 4]0301
2016–17 Ukrainian Premier League 4000——1[lower-alpha 4]050
Total 660151—271301112
Bayer Leverkusen 2016–17 Bundesliga 19010—3[lower-alpha 2]0—230
2017–18 Bundesliga 1000—00—10
2018–19 Bundesliga 18220—8[lower-alpha 1]0—282
2019–20 Bundesliga 15040—6[lower-alpha 5]0—250
Total 53270—170—772
Leicester City (loan) 2017–18 Premier League 1102030——160
Career total 2819341308713040911
  1. Appearance(s) in the UEFA Europa League
  2. Appearance(s) in the UEFA Champions League
  3. Six appearances in the UEFA Champions League and thirteen in the UEFA Europa League
  4. Appearance in the Ukrainian Super Cup
  5. Three appearances in the UEFA Champions League and three appearances in the UEFA Europa League

International
As of 7 September 2020[18]
National teamYearAppsGoals
Austria 200970
201020
201150
201240
201390
201480
201581
2016110
201770
201890
2019100
202020
Total821

International goals
As of 10 June 2018. Score column indicates score after each Dragović goal, Austria score listed first.[19]
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
118 November 2014Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna, Austria Brazil1–11–2Friendly

Honours

Club
Austria Wien
Basel
Dynamo Kyiv

Individual

References
  1. "Updated squads for 2017/18 Premier League confirmed". Premier League. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  2. "Aleksandar Dragović Profile". bayer04.de (in German). Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  3. "Aleksandar Dragovic kommt zum FCB" (in German). FC Basel Internetseite. 2011. Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  4. Weber, Dominik (2011). "Souveräner FC Basel schlägt Servette Genf mit 3:0" (in German). FC Basel Internetseite. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  5. "Jetzt hat Basel den Titel auf sicher" (in German). football.ch. 2012. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  6. "Matchtelegram FC Basel 1893 5:3 FC Luzern" (in German). football.ch. 2012. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  7. Haylett, Trevor (2013). "Basel take heart after Chelsea defeat". UEFA. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  8. Schifferle, Michael (2013). "Season review: Switzerland". UEFA. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  9. SFV (2013). "Telegramm Schweizer Cup Final" (in German). Schweizerischer Fussballverband. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  10. "Bayer 04 sign Dragovic from Dynamo Kyiv". Bayer Leverkusen. 22 August 2016. Archived from the original on 28 August 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  11. "Aleksandar Dragović Joins Leicester City On Season-Long Loan". Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  12. "EURO 2016: Hungary beats Hungary 2-0 at Euro 2016". newindianexpress.com. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  13. "England 2–1 Austria: Euro 2016 – as it happened!". theguardian.com. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  14. Velimirović, I. (11 December 2011). "Dragović: FSS me nije zvao, teška srca sam prihvatio poziv Austrije". Blic.
  15. Wegmann, Michael (19 May 2012). "Dragovic hatte keine Ahnung, wer Ueli Maurer ist". Blick. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012.
  16. "Fall Dragovic eskaliert zur Staatsaffäre". 20 Minuten. 24 May 2012.
  17. Aleksandar Dragović at Soccerway
  18. "Aleksandar Dragović". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  19. "Aleksandar Dragovic". European Football. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  20. "A. Dragović". Soccerway. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  21. "Best Defender 2012". Golden Player. Archived from the original on 1 June 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  22. "Europa League team of the group stage". UEFA. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
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