With West Ham desperately looking for defensive reinforcements and being rejected by numerous players, attentions have turned to Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenkovic.
After unsuccessful pursuits of Burnley’s James Tarkowski and Saint-Etienne’s Wesley Fofana, manager David Moyes is evidently interested in 22-year-old Milenkovic, with a £20m bid being made. The Hammers have failed to invest in their defence with the same enthusiasm as their penchant for inconsistent attackers and Moyes seems eager to redress this imbalance.
However, Milenkovic has suitors across the continent. Italian heavyweights AC Milan are rumoured to be interested, while Manchester United were keen on the Serbian when Jose Mourinho was in charge.
Here is everything you need to know about Nikola Milenkovic.
Milenkovic is capable of playing at both centre back and right back, which would add much-needed flexibility to West Ham’s squad.
The right-footed Serbian stands at 6’5, which would make him a dominant presence at set pieces like you would expect.
After impressive for his local side Partizan Belgrade, Milenkovic made the move to Tuscany and Fiorentina in the summer of 2017 for a fee believed to be in the region of €5m.
It is safe to say the Serb has thrived in Italy. In just over three seasons with the club, Milenkovic has made 92 appearances and scored eight goals for La Viola – five of which came last season.
Still only 22, Milenkovic has plenty of time to fulfil his undoubted potential.
As you would expect with any promising Serbian defender, Milenkovic has been compared to the great Nemanja Vidic.
Mladen Krstajic, his coach at the 2018 World Cup, called the young defender a ‘new Vidic’ and praised Milenkovic’s composure, tenacity and sound ball control.
Strong and an adept one on one defender, it would seem such comparisons are not misplaced.
From all the details we have provided so far, it should be no surprise that Milenkovic caught the eye of Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese was reported to have personally attended a Fiorentina game in 2018 to scout the young defender.
Manchester United were keen but decided to spend £80m on Harry Maguire instead. It has also been rumoured that AC Milan are interested too.
Appearing for his country at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Milenkovic made a solid impression in an underperforming Serbia team.
He played in all three group games and made 34 successful tackles, the most by any player during the tournament’s opening round.
He also impressed with his positional play despite defeats to Brazil and Switzerland. Having only matured and improved since then, it is clear why clubs like West Ham would be interested in his services.
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