Milinkovic-Savic’s Father Nikola Confirms That “He’s Happy With Lazio”

Nikola Milinkovic, father of Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, has highlighted his son’s happiness in Rome.

Speaking in an interview with Portuguese newspaper A Bola (via LazioNews24) earlier today, the elder Milinkovic discussed his pride at the 26-year-old Serbian midfielder’s time with Lazio.

In Italy, players from the old Yugoslavia have always made history. He spent these years in Lazio following the legacy of those fantastic players who were Mihajlovic and Stankovic.

Now he has broken Nedved’s record! He’s a great pride and he’s the foreign midfielder with the most goals for Lazio, just remember that many fantastic midfielders have passed through the club.

Milinkovic noted his happiness with the careers of both Sergej and Torino goalkeeper Vanja.

More than happy for the careers of Sergej and Vanja, who have become famous, I am proud of the people who are. Sergej’s career is great and Vanja is finally getting an opportunity and gaining confidence every game he plays in the Torino goal.

He will be at the top in two years. Sergej has grown immensely in these seven years at Lazio. There is always talk of him leaving but the president has decided to keep him.

He’s happy with Lazio and also in the national team with the qualification to the World Cup. I already see both of them in Qatar and I’m starting to see the possibility of Vanja being a starter.

Milinkovic-Savic’s father looked ahead to Lazio’s Europa League Round of 16 clash against Porto.

I expect two open games. I also hope Lazio can grow stronger in the coming months. They’re not playing badly, but they haven’t been lucky with the results.

Porto are a team that are always a certainty, they play well and enjoy a great status in Portugal and in Europe. But it’s a 50/50 round. I have to cheer for Lazio because my son plays there.

He touched on the strength of Lazio in recent years and their work under new coach Maurizio Sarri.

They’re not as strong a Lazio as they have been in recent years. Before the pandemic broke out, Lazio could have been champions that year, they should have taken advantage of it.

Now they are paying for the adaptation to a new system of play because of the change of coach, but as a former player and person I never want to make judgments on the quality of coaches.

Milinkovic spoke about the effect of playing for Lazio.

I talk to many players who have gone through Lazio and they all tell me a lot about the experience, the great games they played for Lazio and the popularity they gained in Rome.

Those who have left their mark are always remembered with pleasure, even when they return as opponents.

He commented on the strengths of Porto.

I saw Porto’s games against AC Milan and I liked them a lot. They had another objective called Gruljc, who is playing very well, he has fitted into a good team, which has been at the top for 30 years, always with three or four players who stand out for great markets within a compact set.

Porto work very well, they sign well, bringing in new players with a quality brand. They have a very good sporting direction.

Finally, Milinkovic discussed the comparisons between himself and Milinkovic-Savic.

I’ve always said that in Sergej I see myself. There are many things that are almost the same. He is having a great career, many people still encourage me to say that his father was also very superior.

He started as a boy in Austria, maybe at the age of five, but his first real team was Vojvodina, when we returned to Serbia. The first lessons were from his father in training at Alverca.

I took him to almost every training session, he learned to play by watching me. That was the moment he started to walk and the ball started to arouse curiosity.

The 26-year-old Milinkovic-Savic, who is contracted to Lazio until 2024, has made 25 appearances across all competitions so far this season, for a total of 1780 minutes. In that time, he has scored five goals and provided six assists.