Stefan Mitrovic

[jordan]

I’ve spoken to people and scouts as-well, and have heard the opposite. Regardless 17 year olds playing in Serbian first tier don’t last that long before they move.

[Nate3322]

42 minutes ago, scooterlawrence5 said:

I've seen video on him and have spoken to scouts who track him.  They all agree, simply, he's not good enough for Canada right now.  Radnički Niš can keep him for awhile.  If he improves, maybe.  But I just don't see it.  Assess him yourself.  There are way too many players ahead of him at his age who are eligible for Canada right now.  He was never among the top players in Ontario for his age group while he was here let alone in Canada.  He wouldn't make the top provisional roster for U20s in Canada let alone U23s, and you can forget about the MNT regardless of what his dad thinks, that's just embarrassing. The CPL got it right.

Dear god this is an absolute shit take imo. What players are you talking about???? He's playing senior football at decent level on a fairly regular basis. Harry Paton is the only player who's ahead of him right now and he's not a pure 10. Lucas Dias and Simon Colyn are only playing youth football though they are both talented. Otherwise we don't really have too many 10s in his age group. He could easily make into at least the provisional roster for both the u23s or the u20s if not the final team. 

[Michaels]

1 hour ago, scooterlawrence5 said:

I've seen video on him and have spoken to scouts who track him.  They all agree, simply, he's not good enough for Canada right now.  Radnički Niš can keep him for awhile.  If he improves, maybe.  But I just don't see it.  Assess him yourself.  There are way too many players ahead of him at his age who are eligible for Canada right now.  He was never among the top players in Ontario for his age group while he was here let alone in Canada.  He wouldn't make the top provisional roster for U20s in Canada let alone U23s, and you can forget about the MNT regardless of what his dad thinks, that's just embarrassing. The CPL got it right.

If CPL got it right why did Forge take his rights to the league and never informed him of it, seems like a back stab to me, he got scouted by European clubs like Arsenal and Sporting but could not sign because of strict FIFA rules for minors outside of EU, and yes he was one of top prospects in Canada in his age group watched him on many occassions, got this from his twitter account, invitation by Arsenal scouts, seems impressive to me

[Aird25]

Are there many players that have come out of the Puma Elite Player trials?

[SpecialK]

I would have taking him over Daniels for sure. 

[Dominic94]

I can get not calling him if he’s a wing to an extent, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that he’s playing well in the Serbian league. At 17 this is a player we cap tie quite frankly. My understanding and what Wheeler reported is that Mitrovic was going to file his one time switch to play for us and the CSA was in contact with him.

 

the reality is the league he is in is a better level than most of our roster. He’s in form aswell, I’m sure initially you can maybe make the argument that we had lots of MLS guys and TC, but if it’s true they didn’t call then it’s a shame.

The “fathers” comments must be disregarded as parents are too close o the situation. If I another poster in the know can chime in who is more neutral it would be nice.

also I highly doubt a 17 year old dual in a pro league isn’t being watched by us.

also getting it wrong happens so much, it can boil down to something as small as scheme fit. Quite frankly Forge are trying to win trophies and have done so, their decision remains above reproach as they did achieve their goal twice and we don’t know the actual if the case of what if he was a Forge member ?

it worked out better for him and his time will come for Canada or Romania is it ?

[Güerito]

 

No doubt... we all have parents. Likely many on this forum are parents. We all know parents are always going to be their child's number one supporter. So yes, you take things with a grain of salt. But what shouldn't be disregarded, is the direct knowledge that he obviously would have as a parent, in that Herdman, Biello, or whoever from Canada Soccer, haven't even been in touch with his son. You would assume Canada Soccer would at least touch base with its prospects, especially ones playing at the level he is. Is there something else going on in the background with that situation; who knows?

But if Serbia want to bring him into their fold (U20 or otherwise), a national program which ranks more than 40 spots above Canada no less, you at least give the kid a courtesy call no? Maybe I'm off base. 

[narduch]

Man that letter from Arsenal is 6 years ago. That's ages in a youth players career 

[Unnamed Trialist]

The kid is playing in a league that is ranked higher than Bulgaria, where Yankov is. 

On a lower quality team perhaps. 

Still, Serbia is a great training ground and if you are up against men, and in the tactical quality of the Balkans, you have to be good. 

My point of comparison is Srdjan Djekanovic, who I knew and was in touch with for a time. Srdjan was starting for a similarly modest team in Serbia top flight at age 18. This is when the situation was still fragile in Serbia and the league was a lower level than now, but still. He then went on to play for Whitecaps, TFC, Impact. Now of course a keeper is much more exposed in any top flight, you can't hide and mistakes really count, but still: this kid should be on our radar and in our system.

[El Hombre]

Just curious, but were people expecting Mitrovic for the Olympic squad?  Because I think that's a stretch.  In reality, no 18 year-old should be playing a U23 tournament unless they are really special players.  Mitrovic might be good one day, but I don't think he's at that level.

Considering the 20-man squad restriction and the number of TFC players that had to be replaced at the last minute, I really don't see where Mitrovic would fit.  Sure, in retrospect, it would've been great to have him waiting in the wings if need be, but I don't think the CSA could've foreseen not having 5-6 TFC players available to them (a quarter of the team) at the last minute.

[VinceA]

18 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

Just curious, but were people expecting Mitrovic for the Olympic squad?  Because I think that's a stretch.  In reality, no 18 year-old should be playing a U23 tournament unless they are really special players.  Mitrovic might be good one day, but I don't think he's at that level.

Considering the 20-man squad restriction and the number of TFC players that had to be replaced at the last minute, I really don't see where Mitrovic would fit.  Sure, in retrospect, it would've been great to have him waiting in the wings if need be, but I don't think the CSA could've foreseen not having 5-6 TFC players available to them (a quarter of the team) at the last minute.

I think he's a lock for the U23 team in 2004. He seems committed to the program (from what we've heard, Serbian friendlies notwithstanding) so this isn't a Dias situation where we want him right now to be safe.

I think we would have seen him with the U20s if the big panini hadn't dropped on us.

[Aird25]

39 minutes ago, VinceA said:

I think he's a lock for the U23 team in 2004.

It’s a bit early for me to be picking that team

[narduch]

It's also unfortunate that due to the pandemic the U17 and U20 tournaments have been canceled (as far as I can tell)

[El Hombre]

11 minutes ago, narduch said:

It's also unfortunate that due to the pandemic the U17 and U20 tournaments have been canceled (as far as I can tell)

Yes, I believe they were officially cancelled earlier this year.  Major disappointment.  Mitrovic would've been a no-brainer for that type of tournament.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 hour ago, El Hombre said:

Just curious, but were people expecting Mitrovic for the Olympic squad?.

Assuming he wanted to play for Canada and his club would release him, then yes. Maybe not on the final roster, but at least on the provisional one.

1 hour ago, El Hombre said:

 In reality, no 18 year-old should be playing a U23 tournament unless they are really special players.

By this logic, 18 year old Lucas Dias who is still playing U23 minutes shouldn't have gotten the call then!

[El Hombre]

Just now, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Assuming he wanted to play for Canada and his club would release him, then yes. Maybe not on the final roster, but at least on the provisional one.

By this logic, 18 year old Lucas Dias who is still playing U23 minutes shouldn't have gotten the call then!

I would contend that Lucas is a "special player".

[Shway]

2 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

I would contend that Lucas is a "special player".

Why constitutes that? 
Wouldn’t an 18yo who’s playing pro ball be considered a “special player”.

You won’t have answer for that, but like I’ve always said - there’s no barometer to gauge how to make it into the Canadian setup.

It’s all noise related.

[SoccMan]

Just from the players that have come out of Serbia who started off in the Serbian league it’s really impressive that at only 17 this kid started and has been doing well in that league. When I think of Serbian players I see very technical and gifted players and very tactically astute as someone also mentioned in a previous post. Yes in an U24 tournament you want to go with a much older lineup as possible age makes a difference in these kinds of tournaments, however, this kid who is playing and starting against seasoned professionals in a pretty good league I think would have been a choice that would have made a lot of sense no? 

[El Hombre]

5 minutes ago, Shway said:

Why constitutes that? 
Wouldn’t an 18yo who’s playing pro ball be considered a “special player”.

You won’t have answer for that, but like I’ve always said - there’s no barometer to gauge how to make it into the Canadian setup.

It’s all noise related.

Meh.  Maybe you rate the Serbian league higher than I do.  The kid is doing well and all the more power to him, but I think it was a long shot for him to make this team considering the size of the roster. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

17 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

I would contend that Lucas is a "special player".

"special player" is to @El Hombre what "certified baller" was to that poster a few years back whose name escapes me.  

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

8 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

Meh.  Maybe you rate the Serbian league higher than I do.  The kid is doing well and all the more power to him, but I think it was a long shot for him to make this team considering the size of the roster. 

Who do you think was more worth of getting a Camp Poutine call up? Belal Halbouni (Werder Bremen 2) who got one or Stefan Mitrovic who didn't?

[SoccMan]

3 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Who do you think was more worth of getting a Camp Poutine call up? Belal Halbouni (Werder Bremen 2) who got one or Stefan Mitrovic who didn't?

Yup I don’t know what’s going on there  the Serbian league ok is not the Italian Serie A but we can all agree a lot of good players have come out of there. So my thing is that if a kid at 17 is starting in this  league and getting major minutes and even scoring wouldn’t he deserve at least a call up to that Camp Poutine ?

[SpecialK]

Well if we had more Friendlies and more youth camps with Friendlies. We could really see all these talented players and pick from that. Nope the CSA didn’t want to do that and go with the cheap option and here we are. It’s kind of sad, I worry that we’re going to miss out on some players. At the youth level we really don’t know what we have. 

[Aird25]

I would hope the people choosing the team actually watch the players instead of arbitrarily ranking the leagues they play in

[SpecialK]

6 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

I would hope the people choosing the team actually watch the players instead of arbitrarily ranking the leagues they play in

But wouldn’t be more important is how they work together as a team? Like the chemistry between players is extremely important. I’m sure these coaches are watching them, but like Mauro said he picked fringe players because he was familiar with them. Well they were there in France 2 years ago and that one camp vs Iceland . Well if they had some camps with some exhibition games they could actually experiment, and see what works and what they have. Also it would help showcase players. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by SpecialK