Nikola Krstovic is dragging Coach Giampaolo’s Lecce to the tune of goals and excellent performances out of the relegation zone.
NetBet bookmakers and sports news sites expected Lecce to fight to stay in Serie A, but few would have guessed that the Montenegrin striker would reconfirm himself as one of the league’s top scorers.
La sua storia
Nikola Krstovic was born on April 5, 2000 in the village of Golubovac, Serbia. He began to take his first steps in soccer in the youth ranks of FK Zeta Golubovac, where he also made his first team debut in the 2015-2016 season.
He built the beginning of his career by wearing the jersey of the team where he grew up for three seasons to explode as the top scorer in the 2017-18 championship. He has dual nationality, Serbian and Montenegrin, but has chosen to represent Montenegro by wearing the jersey of the senior national team starting in 2022, after summonses starting in the Under-15 youth selections.
After showing off, he was bought by Red Star and moved to Belgrade, where he did not gather too many results: few appearances and few goals convinced him to drop down to the second division, though he remained in the Serbian capital, wearing the Graficar jersey. He returned to Red Star during the season compromised by the pandemic for a year before moving permanently to DAC Dunajska Streda in Slovenia.
In summer 2023 he landed at Lecce at the request of Corvino, with whom he signed a four-year contract with the option of an additional season. Ten days later he made his debut in Italy’s top league, scoring the goal that fixed the score at 2-2 in an away match against Fiorentina. In the next match he scores again, contributing to the 2-0 home win over Salernitana, and he also repeated himself in the following match, which ended 1-1 on the field of Monza. With this series of goals he becomes the first Lecce player to score in his first three matches with the club.
He made his national team debut on March 28, 2022, summoned by Technical Commissioner Miodrag Radulović, taking the field as a starter in the friendly match won 1-0 against Greece. Exactly one year later, on March 24, 2023, he scored his first international goal, his goal deciding the 1-0 away win against Bulgaria in the qualifying round of the 2024 European Championship.
On Nov. 19, 2024, he scored his first hat trick for the national team, in the 3-1 win over Turkey in the last match of the UEFA Nations League group stage.
Il miglior giocatore montenegrino del 2024
In addition, in 2024, Nikola Krstovic was crowned Best Player of Montenegro by the Montenegrin Football Federation (FsCG). An award that propels him into the Olympus of national soccer and places him in the footsteps of legends such as Mirko Vucinic, who dominated the scene for many editions.
The award given to Krstovic takes on even more significance when one considers the history of this award. Mirko Vucinic, a former Lecce, Roma and Juventus striker, has long been the undisputed ruler, winning it seven times.
While the year before it was awarded to defender Stefan Savic.
Il suo futuro: le dichiarazioni
There are many teams interested in Krstovic who, however, remains focused on the management’s goal, which is to be saved, in fact, a recent interview stated, “As for me, I would like to reach double digits, it would be a way to give the team a hand in achieving salvation.”
About the market, however, Fabio Trinchera also spoke: “He is now completing his journey, for us he is a key player in the team. And we hold on to him, we enjoy him, he still has important margins. But I am sure that at the end of the season he will be ready for a great team.”
These statements hint at a possible farewell at the end of the season, Inter Milan and Roma are in fact on him.
The former are looking for an attacking replacement who can enter the rotation with Lautaro Martinez and Thuram, the latter are looking for an alternative to Gimenez while as far as Roma is concerned, the situation of Artem Dovbyk will have to be watched closely, an eventual departure of the Ukrainian could open up negotiations.
The article Krstovic: between past and future comes from Calcio Lecce.
