Marko Mitrovic intervju från Chelsea Magazine
Vi har fått klartecken av Chelsea Magazine att publicera den tidigare artikeln om Marko Mitrovic på vår hemsida, och det tackar vi naturligtvis för.
Marko Mitrovic is a confident guy. He speaks about his prospects in the game with serious ambition and that talk centres most often on a suitable subject for a centre-forward – scoring goals.
Finding the net is the ultimate high for the 16-year-old and he makes no apologies for highlighting it as his biggest strength when asked to describe his style.
‘I’m a target man so I’m strong, technical and good with headers but I just love scoring goals, finishing with either foot,’ he says. ‘I play a lot with my back to goal as a target man and I like to turn and shoot when I can.’
That love of scoring has so far served the Swede well and he made a prolific start to his Chelsea career. A pre-season tournament in Cobham provided Mitrovic with his first chance to prove his goal-scoring talent and, against some of the world’s best youngsters, he shone.
‘I had only been in England for a month when the Cobham Cup came round and it was my first tournament, my first games for Chelsea,’ he explains, taking up the story of when Ajax, River Plate and Bayern Munich, to name but a few, visited the Surrey training ground. ‘I played really well though and was top scorer in the tournament with four goals in four games so I think I impressed!
‘The coaches told me after my first game against River Plate – when I scored two goals – that I was doing well and we continued like that to get to the final.
‘It feels really good to play for the world’s best club against some of the best clubs in the other continents,’ he continues, clearly pleased to have joined Chelsea. ‘It doesn’t get any better than that and it felt really good to get two goals against world-class footballers like River Plate have.’
But that tournament was not the first opportunity Chelsea’s Academy coaches had to see the talented striker in action. He was scouted and then invited for trials in order to prove his credentials in what was an exciting time for the teenager.
‘I was playing in the Swedish Youth Cup for Malmo when Chelsea spotted me,’ he informs us. ‘It wasn’t really a difficult decision for me – I’d made up my mind from the beginning because I think Chelsea are the biggest club in the world.
‘I didn’t know they were scouting me at first but a few months later I found out about it and I came to England for a trial.
‘After the first trial I was asked to come back a second time, when I played a game with the Under-16s, and they were very impressed with me. They told me after the game they wanted to sign me so I was really pleased.’
Like Sweden’s current star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marko is of Balkan heritage and explains that, although they were never players themselves, his parents’ enthusiasm for the game led to him getting involved in football at a very early age.
‘I’ve always played football since I was little – both my mum and dad were interested in the game but never really played it properly. They just played all the time with me when I was growing up and I was also playing for a club.
‘My parents are from Serbia but they moved to Sweden and that’s where I was born so I play for the Swedish national team.
‘I started with a really small club called BK Olympic when I was four, and then when you reach six years old you can start playing for Malmo. So I went there, they accepted me and that’s where I played before Chelsea.’
After joining the Blues last summer, Mitrovic joined a selection of older first-year scholars. But he has since been joined in the youth-team line-up by several Under-16s prospects as the Academy coaching staff look to give talented youngsters a chance to prove themselves in an older age group. The Swede is confident about what lies in store for this team next season as a result.
‘When I first joined the youth team at the start of this season I was the youngest player in the squad and that was really exciting,’ he confirms before pointing out the advantages of having younger lads join the squad in the latter stages of the season.
‘I think we have a very good attacking team and I also like that Chelsea want to bring up youngsters.
‘It’s really good that these younger players have been given the chance at a higher age group and I think the youth team will do really well next season because of that.’
So how about his favourite tally – the goals column – is he achieving the sort of statistics he wants there?
‘I think I’ve been doing really well in terms of scoring goals with five goals in eight starts in the league,’ he says enthusiastically. ‘But since that good start I’ve been very unfortunate with injuries and haven’t had the amount of games I wanted. So I’m looking forward to next season very much and hoping that I don’t get too many injuries.
‘The new training building can make a very big difference as well,’ he adds. ‘There’s so many good facilities and I think it’s the best training ground in the world – you have everything to develop to become a world-class player.
‘But now that you have got everything you need around you at the training ground, it is just about doing it yourself – you have to understand what you have and use that to become as good as you can.
‘The worry is you might think you’ve already made it but I’m looking forward and making the effort to develop and be the best I can by using what we have here.’
His disappointment at having the first season of his scholarship here cut short by injury is clear to see. But his natural confidence has not been damaged and Mitrovic plans to be fit by the time this magazine hits the shelves in order to prepare fully for his second year at Chelsea.
‘My aims for next season? I want to keep scoring for the youth team and then take the step up to the reserves to see if I can do the same there,’ he says. ‘But we’ll see how my development goes – it’s very important that I get goals, that’s my role but I still have to do the rest of my job by making runs and working for the team.’
That last comment is symptomatic of Marko’s popularity in the team, something demonstrated by the amount of good-natured grief thrown his way by passing team-mates as he speaks.
Now he hopes his team ethic combines with that love of scoring goals to fire him to the next level in the 2009/10 season.
