The Shortlist: Aleksandar Pavlović
SCOUTED50 special: a tempo-setting midfielder for your shortlists.
This is The Shortlist — the quick, digestible way to get to know football’s hottest property, as told by the scouts who’ve watched them.
In this SCOUTED50 special, Tom’s long-suffering seven-a-side team-mate (and analyst for Tifo and The Athletic) Jon Mackenzie sheds some light on his number one pick.
SCOUTED
SCOUTED: Jon Mackenzie, welcome. Earlier this week, you voted in SCOUTED50. My first question, then, is thus: why the hell did you put Aleksandar Pavlović at the coveted number one spot? We gave you so many lovely names to choose from.
JON MACKENZIE: I judged these players on how likely I think they are to ‘make it’ at the professional level - so naturally I went with the guy who arguably already has.
Aleksandar Pavlović is a twenty-year-old kid who played over a thousand minutes for Bayern Munich across all competitions last year. He’s basically become a constant starter this season under Vincent Kompany and it looks likely he’ll stay that way for the next decade. He came through Bayern’s academy, was bred for this particular role and is just generally very exciting.
