Ajax has signed Mateja Milovanovic. The seventeen-year-old center defender has been playing in the youth academy of the Amsterdammers since the summer of 2018, who took him over from Sparta Rotterdam at the time. Milovanovic has signed a contract until the summer of 2024. It is the first contract for the left leg with Serbian parents.
“This is definitely a reward, I’ve been waiting for this for a while. This is a nice reward,” the Ajax Under 18 mandekker responds to the club’s website. “It feels really wonderful, I’m really happy and almost speechless.” The reporter of Ajax TV says in the interview to Milovanovic that he had to blink twice, because he strongly resembles someone ‘from his younger years’. Milovanovic can’t help but laugh and knows what the reporter is talking about.
“I know who you mean: Ibrahimovic. Everyone I just met says I look like Ibrahimovic. I think that too, I look like him,” said the Dutch youth international, who is well aware of his own qualities: “I am calm on the ball, have a good pass and stand my ground in defensive terms. I think I’ve progressed since I’ve been at Ajax. Especially physically and mentally, playing football has always been there.”
“At Ajax 1, I watch Daley Blind a lot”, Milovanovic responds when he is asked about his examples. “He also has a good pass. I really like the passes between the lines he sends. I also watched a lot of Sergio Ramos. In the days when Real Madrid often won the Champions League, I thought he was a real leader. I also really liked watching that.”
Due to his Serbian roots, Dusan Tadic is an example in the field of leadership. “When Ajax scores, I see how he calls everyone together to cheer together. You can see that he really is a leader and I think that’s nice to see. When we see each other, we’ll talk Serbian for a while. We talk to each other from time to time and then we ask each other how things are going. Last time he asked when I’ll get to the first. What I said? As quickly as possible.”