Ivan Ilić: Serbia’s ‘complete midfielder’, ready for the next level sooner rather than later
The 'complete midfielder' has been earmarked for the top since his debut. After an up-and-down relationship with the Serbian faithful, he is now a reliable fixture for his club and country.
This article is the latest piece of xG Files’ ‘EuroFiles’ series for the upcoming European Championship, profiling 24 players from the qualified nations with expert opinions from journalists, writers, editors, and media guides from each respective nation, which you can find here.
Ivan Ilić’s name has been on the lips of many Serbians since the age of 16.
As Serbia were gearing up their squad for the 2018 World Cup, a year out, Ilić was making his Serbian SuperLiga debut—the youngest debutant in Red Star Belgrade’s history—at 16 years and 15 days.
A couple of months later, with only that solitary appearance, he was poached by Manchester City alongside his older brother, Luka, but would be loaned back to Red Star until he turned 18.
It was a deal layered with intrigue, but so was Ilić. A teenager who was an enigma amongst the Serbian media, considering there’s not a lot of record of media appearances or column inches on Ilić; despite being a player destined to play for Serbia, they never actually played.
The move to City, albeit a transfer tailored around potential rather than an immediate contribution, was perceived as the club needed for his development. However, it was not.
Ivan and his brother would never play for City, but as Luka is still within the confines of the City Football Group (CFG) with Ligue 2 side Troyes, Ivan has broken away and forged a career that has propelled him from prospect to international pedigree during his four years in Italy.
Making the move to Serie A wasn't as clear-cut as he has made it. Olympique Marseille was on the lookout for some additional ball presence in midfield; they identified Ilić as their primary target, which at one point Ilić had all but signed off for. So naturally, there's some doubt about the willingness to move.
However, Croatian coach Ivan Jurić, who was at Hellas Verona at the time, wooed Ilić with the development dream.
“[Ivan] Jurić helped him [Ilić] take that next step,” said Kristijan Plazonja, a Serbian analyst who runs X account Serbian Football Scout.
Under Jurić at Verona, Ilić had the support and alleviation of domestic pressure from a constant urging national crowd with intent on your every move to mould his game to whatever he wanted in a two-man midfield.
Born into a sporting family, where his mother, Danijela—an Olympic silver medalist at the 1990 FIBA World Championships in basketball—and his father, Srđan, a footballer with local side Radnički Niš, Ilić was brought up within the valves of professional sport from young.
Even as a teenager playing in Italy, his development was assured. However, as his time in Verona picked up, there was a lot of movement in the dugout that occurred. Specifically, the man who brought him to the club, Jurić, departed for the much more attractive project of Torino. His successor, Eusebio Di Francesco, a spikey, emotional character with a gung-ho approach that unrivalled immediately, and Igor Tudor was brought in to stabilise and quieten the unrest, which he did.
While this was all happening, Ilić kept playing and earning Serbian caps. With Torino roaming around the European places under Jurić and Verona in the midst of a relegation battle, once a proposal came from the Turin side that would reunite Ilić with the coach he calls ‘professor’ in the 2023 winter window, despite a rivalling bid from Marseille, it was a no-brainer.
Well, not for everyone.
“The move was met with disappointment back home [in Serbia].” Plazonja added, “Although Torino was a superior platform [to showcase his talent], the expectation was [that] he would take a bigger next step.”
The scepticism about how high Ilić was aiming was ambiguous, but it was more an indication of his relationship with the Serbian faithful.
With all the talent came expectations, as Plazonja cites.
“He was the stand-out player in a rare generation of failure.”
Whereas for the senior side, which is seen as Serbia’s golden generation, with the likes of Sergej Milinković-Savić, Dušan Vlahović, Aleksandar Mitrović, and Dušan Tadić all at the peak of their games in recent years, and under head coach Dragan ‘Piksi’ Stojković, who is also a Niš native, Ilić has been managed in throughout the last couple of years without the initial awe and clamour for his selection that Lazar Samardžić, a year his junior, received when he made the international switch from Germany to Serbia.
Stojković kept Ilić on the fringes, with the midfielder often featuring with the under-21s, but he was gradually eased in and started to maintain consistency that earned call-ups. This was shown in the 2022 Nations League game against Norway, where he came into the starting XI and made his impact, replacing the suspended Milinković-Savić and showing the drive and touch from midfield—as his assist shown—that has often drawn comparison.
The midfielder still regularly watches his former Serie A countryman, Milinković-Savić, as he increasingly becomes a decisive figure for club and country.
His profile, just like it was summer and summer for Milinković-Savić when he was at Lazio, is one that is on the wish list for numerous European clubs.
“Physically impressive, lengthy frame, carries the ball with composure and sticks to an opponent like glue; he’s the complete midfielder,” Plazonja states.
Milan has shown interest in the past. Arsenal inquired about him last summer.
Ilić became a midfielder because he was bored of playing in goal when he was younger. Now, he’s one of the most complete his country has to offer, and if the past couple years in Italy haven’t shown it, the Euros in the summer provide another chance.