Igor Matić

Igor Matić

Personal information
Date of birth	(1981-07-22) 22 July 1981
Place of birth	Bugojno, SFR Yugoslavia
Height
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Čukarički
Number	10
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1998–2003	Zemun	71	(11)
2003–2005	OFK Beograd	36	(11)
2005–2006	Caen	24	(2)
2008	Banat Zrenjanin	11	(0)
2008	Megasport	11	(0)
2009–2010	Grbalj	27	(9)
2010–2012	Mogren	43	(10)
2012	Napredak Kruševac	16	(3)
2012–	Čukarički	97	(22)
International career
2002–2004	Serbia and Montenegro U21	11	(3)
2004	Serbia and Montenegro Olympic	2	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 11 December 2015

Igor Matić (Serbian Cyrillic: Игор Матић; born 22 July 1981) is a Serbian footballer who plays as a deep-lying playmaker for SuperLiga club Čukarički. He represented Serbia and Montenegro at the men's football tournament in the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Club career

Zemun

Matić began his senior football career with FK Zemun in 1998. As a 19-year-old, he was one of the players involved in Zemun's famous drive in the semifinals of the 1999-2000 Cup of Yugoslavia. He played for Zemun until 2003.

OFK Beograd

Matić joined OFK Beograd from Zemun in 2003, and played alongside Branislav Ivanović in one of the strongest generations of OFK Beograd that decade. One highlight of Matić's spell at OFK was making the 2004 UEFA Intertoto semifinals before being eliminated by Atlético Madrid.

Mogren

Matić joined Mogren from Grbalj in 2010, where he would spend two years and amass 43 appearances and contribute with 10 goals. In January 2012, Matić sued Mogren in Montenegro's arbitrage court because he wasn't paid for over five months.

Napredak

After leaving Mogren on a sour note, Matić joined Napredak Kruševac in January 2012, who had just hired Aleksandar Kristić as their coach. This was an important factor in Matić choosing to join Napredak, as he and Kristić had known each other since he was at OFK Beograd, as Kristić was one of OFK's youth coaches at the time.

Čukarički

"Čukarički is dangerous in set pieces because of Matić..."

Slaviša Stojanovič, Red Star coach in April 2014

After only a half-season with Napredak, Matić quickly joined Čukarički, which was in 2012 the first privatized professional football club in Serbia. He would become Čukarički's playmaker and contribute to their promotion to the first-tier SuperLiga. In an October 2013 article titled "They are the 'oldies', everyone fears them", Serbia's Sportal named Matić in an 11-man selection of the best players over the age of 28 in the SuperLiga. On March 18, 2015, he suffered a hamstring injury which sidelined him for two weeks.

International career

Despite having born in Bugojno, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, he opted to represent Serbia and Montenegr internationally. Matić was part of the Serbia and Montenegro national under-21 team that finished runners-up at the 2004 European Championship. He was also part of the Serbia and Montenegro team at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Honours

Čukarički

• Serbian Cup (1): 2014–15

External links

• Igor Matić at lfp.fr
• Igor Matić at srbijafudbal.net