Aleksandar Katai
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Aleksandar Katai | ||
| Date of birth | 6 February 1991 | ||
| Place of birth | Srbobran, SFR Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Winger, Attacking midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
Current team | Red Star Belgrade | ||
| Number | 10 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 2002–2009 | Vojvodina | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2009–2011 | Vojvodina | 29 | (6) |
| 2009 | → Palić (loan) | 10 | (3) |
| 2011–2015 | Olympiacos | 0 | (0) |
| 2011 | → OFI Crete (loan) | 2 | (0) |
| 2011–2013 | → Vojvodina (loan) | 31 | (6) |
| 2013–2014 | → Platanias (loan) | 24 | (8) |
| 2014–2015 | → Red Star Belgrade (loan) | 20 | (2) |
| 2015– | Red Star Belgrade | 20 | (13) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2011–2012 | Serbia U21 | 2 | (0) |
| 2015– | Serbia | 1 | (0) |
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16 December 2015. | |||
Aleksandar Katai (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Катаи; born February 6, 1991) is a Serbian footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for FK Crvena zvezda.
Club career
Vojvodina
Katai started playing football for his hometown club FK Vojvodina youth squad. After 6 months loan to lower league team FK Palić at the start of 2009-10 season he was promoted to Vojvodina's first team. He's debut in Serbian SuperLiga was on 14 March 2010, when he came in as substitute against FK Čukarički, and he scored his first goal just seven days latter in a match against FK Mladi Radnik. On June 28, 2011, he left FK Vojvodina and went to Athens to join Olympiacos.[1]
Olympiacos
On June 24, 2011, Olympiacos agreed to sign Katai on a four-year contract.[2] At his first trainings with Olympiacos, coach Ernesto Valverde told Katai that he did not defend enough and that he needed to improve as a player.[3] However, as an Olympiacos player, Katai did not play a single match for Olympiacos, but was instead sent on loan four times. He was first loaned to OFI Crete, with whom he made his debut on November 5, 2011, against Panionios.[4] The loan spell to Crete was unsuccessful, and so Olympiacos loaned him back to his hometown club FK Vojvodina. While on loan at Vojvodina, in 2012 after one game with Spartak Subotica, he felt very ill and went to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with thrombopenia.[3] He had to have some blood removed and stayed in the hospital for two weeks before he was allowed to recover from home.[3] During his recovery, he had gained over 20 pounds, and did not return to play football until the end of the year.[3] He remained a loaned player for Vojvodina until the club president Ratko Butorović died unexpectedly on June 8, 2013, which led to a period of instability in the club during which Katai left.[5] He subsequently was loaned to Platanias, for whom he scored a total of eight goals and six assists[3] until his loan there expired in the summer of 2014.
"Katai's problem is not motivation, it's in his head, because maybe he did not want to return to Serbia. The boy trained for a month and a half until midnight [at Olympiacos], and they still didn't allow him to train properly. All they did was let him on the training field so he wouldn't sue them. He is a little angry..."
Red Star Belgrade
On August 31, 2014, in a last-minute deal before the transfer window closed, Katai devoted to a one-year loan to Red Star Belgrade.[7] Throughout the fall of 2014, Katai was reported to be out of shape, and Red Star's coach Nenad Lalatović was said to have claimed that Katai "had a problem in his head".[6]
On June 18, 2015, it was announced that Katai terminated his contract with Olympiacos and forgave a debt of €300,000 which was owed to him by Red Star from the loan contract, and subsequently signed a two-year contract with Red Star Belgrade.[8] For the 2015-16 season, Miodrag Grof Božović was hired as the new coach and Katai played good game against Kairat in first qualifying round for the Europa League, although Red Star failed to qualify. By the end of October 2015, Katai had scored 10 goals and recorded 6 assists in 15 league matches, ranking him as one of the most effective midfielders in all of Europe at the time surveyed.[9]
International career
Katai played two games for Serbia U21 national team. On October 5, 2015, Katai received his first senior call-up to make an international debut against Albania and Portugal in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.[10]
References
- ↑ Sportal: Srbin doputovao u Grčku (Serbian) 28 June 101
- ↑ ""Έκλεισε" τον Κατάι, συμφώνησε με Βοϊβοντίνα". redplanet.gr. 2011-06-24.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Katai za MOZZART otkrio da je nekoliko meseci vodio bitku sa zdravljem: Bio sam nenormalno "plav" i lekari su utvrdili da bolujem od trombocitopenije" (in Serbian). March 13, 2015.
- ↑ Aleksandar Katai finally made his debut (Serbian) - November 8, 2011
- ↑ Novosti: Katai prvi otišao iz Vojvodine (Serbian) 11 June 2013
- 1 2 "Lalatović: Katai ima problem u glavi, Partizanu je pomogla gej parada" (in Serbian). October 7, 2014.
- ↑ Mozzart Sport: ZVANIČNO: Katai u Zvezdi! (Serbian) August 31, 2014
- ↑ RTS: Katai ostaje u Zvezdi, potpisao ugovor na dve godine! (Serbian) 26 June 2013
- ↑ S. Ilijoski. Novosti: “Desetka” Zvezde među najproduktivnijim igračima u Evropi: Katai u društvu velikana (Serbian) October 30, 2015.
- ↑ Mozzart: Zaslužen poziv: Katai u reprezentaciji Srbije za Albaniju i Portugaliju! (Serbian) October 5, 2015. Retrieved October 30, 2015
External links
- Aleksandar Katai at Srbijafudbal.
- Aleksandar Katai profile at Soccerway
- Aleksandar Katai at Kapiten|sport news.
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