Aleksandar Katai
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Aleksandar Katai | ||
| Date of birth | 6 February 1991 | ||
| Place of birth | Srbobran, SFR Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Winger / Attacking midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
Current team | Alavés | ||
| Number | 25 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 2002–2009 | Vojvodina | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2009–2011 | Vojvodina | 29 | (6) |
| 2009 | → Palić (loan) | 10 | (3) |
| 2011–2015 | Olympiacos | 0 | (0) |
| 2011 | → OFI Crete (loan) | 2 | (0) |
| 2011–2013 | → Vojvodina (loan) | 31 | (6) |
| 2013–2014 | → Platanias (loan) | 24 | (8) |
| 2014–2015 | → Red Star Belgrade (loan) | 20 | (2) |
| 2015–2016 | Red Star Belgrade | 37 | (23) |
| 2016– | Alavés | 6 | (0) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2011–2012 | Serbia U21 | 2 | (0) |
| 2015– | Serbia | 6 | (0) |
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 October 2016. | |||
Aleksandar Katai (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Катаи; born 6 February 1991) is a Serbian footballer who plays for Spanish club Deportivo Alavés as a winger or an attacking midfielder.
Club career
Vojvodina
Katai started playing football for his hometown club FK Vojvodina youth squad. After 6 months loan to lower league team FK Palić at the start of 2009–10 season he was promoted to Vojvodina's first team.[1] He's debut in Serbian SuperLiga was on 14 March 2010, when he came in as substitute against FK Čukarički, and he scored his first goal just seven days later in a match against FK Mladi Radnik. On June 28, 2011, he left FK Vojvodina and went to Athens to join Olympiacos.[2]
Olympiacos
On June 24, 2011, Olympiacos agreed to sign Katai on a four-year contract.[3] At his first trainings with Olympiacos, coach Ernesto Valverde told Katai that he did not defend enough and that he needed to improve as a player.[4] However, as an Olympiacos player, Katai did not play a single match for Olympiacos, but was instead sent on loan four times. He was first loaned to OFI Crete, with whom he made his debut on November 5, 2011, against Panionios.[5] The loan spell to Crete was unsuccessful, and so Olympiacos loaned him back to his hometown club FK Vojvodina. While on loan at Vojvodina, in 2012 after one game with Spartak Subotica, he felt very ill and went to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with thrombopenia.[4] He had to have some blood removed and stayed in the hospital for two weeks before he was allowed to recover from home.[4] During his recovery, he had gained over 20 pounds, and did not return to play football until the end of the year.[4] He remained a loaned player for Vojvodina until the club president Ratko Butorović died unexpectedly on June 8, 2013, which led to a period of instability in the club during which Katai left.[6] He subsequently was loaned to Platanias, for whom he scored a total of eight goals and six assists[4] until his loan there expired in the summer of 2014.
"Katai's problem is not motivation, it's in his head, because maybe he did not want to return to Serbia. The boy trained for a month and a half until midnight [at Olympiacos], and they still didn't allow him to train properly. All they did was let him on the training field so he wouldn't sue them. He is a little angry..."
Nenad Lalatović, October 7, 2014[7]
Red Star Belgrade
2014–15
On August 31, 2014, in a last-minute deal before the transfer window closed, Katai devoted to a one-year loan to Red Star Belgrade.[8] Throughout the fall of 2014, Katai was reported to be out of shape, and Red Star's coach Nenad Lalatović was said to have claimed that Katai "had a problem in his head".[7]
2015–16
On June 18, 2015, it was announced that Katai terminated his contract with Olympiacos and forgave a debt of €300,000 which was owed to him by Red Star from the loan contract, and subsequently signed a two-year contract with Red Star Belgrade.[9] For the 2015-16 season, Miodrag Grof Božović was hired as the new coach and Katai played a good game against Kairat in the first qualifying round for the Europa League, although Red Star failed to qualify. By the end of October 2015, Katai had scored 10 goals and made 6 assists in 15 league matches, ranking him one of the most effective midfielders in all of Europe at the time surveyed.[10]
Katai ended the season with the title of the best scorer of the Superliga, scoring his 21st in the last round against Radnički for the 27th title celebration.
2016–17
In the first competitive match of the 2016-17 season, Katai scored an equalizer and assist for win against Valletta FC in the first match of the second qualifying round for the Champions League in Valletta and winner in rematch, in Belgrade.[11] In the first game of the third round of qualification for the Champions League against Bulgarian PFC Ludogorets Razgrad continued his goal-scoring series, with a 12th consecutive goal, when he dribbled past three players and scored,[12] though Red Star were ultimately eliminated.
Alavés
On 31 August 2016, Katai signed a three-year contract with La Liga side Deportivo Alavés, for an undisclosed fee.[13]
International career
Katai played two games for Serbia U21 national team. On 5 October 2015, Katai received his first senior call-up and made his debut for Serbia in a friendly match against the Czech Republic.[14]
Career statistics
Club
- As of 29 October 2016[15]
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Palić | 2009–10 (loan)[1] | League Vojvodina | 10 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 10 | 3 |
| Vojvodina | 2009–10 | SuperLiga | 6 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | 3 |
| 2010–11 | 23 | 3 | 4 | 1 | – | – | – | – | 27 | 4 | ||
| 2011–12 (loan) | 11 | 1 | 2 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 13 | 1 | ||
| 2012–13 (loan) | 20 | 5 | 5 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 25 | 5 | ||
| Total | 60 | 12 | 11 | 1 | – | – | – | – | 71 | 13 | ||
| OFI Crete | 2011–12 (loan) | Superleague | 2 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 0 |
| Olympiacos | 2011–12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2012–13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2013–14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2014–15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Platanias | 2013–14 (loan) | 24 | 8 | 2 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 26 | 8 | |
| Red Star Belgrade | 2014–15 (loan) | SuperLiga | 20 | 2 | 2 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 22 | 2 |
| 2015–16 | 33 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | – | – | 36 | 23 | ||
| 2016–17 | 4 | 2 | – | – | 6 | 4 | – | – | 10 | 6 | ||
| Total | 57 | 25 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 4 | – | – | 68 | 31 | ||
| Alavés | 2016–17 | La Liga | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 6 | 0 |
| Career total | 159 | 48 | 16 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 183 | 55 | ||
International
| Serbian national team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 2015 | 1 | 0 |
| 2016 | 5 | 0 |
| Total | 6 | 0 |
Personal life
Born in Srbobran, a village in northern Serbia, his paternal grandfather was of Ukrainian origin and his grandmother was Hungarian. His surname is Hungarian, adopted from his grandmother.[16]
Honours
Club
- Red Star
Individual
- Serbian SuperLiga top goalscorer (1): 2015-16
References
- 1 2 "Aleksandar Katai". srbijafudbal.net (in Serbian). Retrieved 22 February 2013.
- ↑ Sportal: Srbin doputovao u Grčku (Serbian) 28 June 101
- ↑ ""Έκλεισε" τον Κατάι, συμφώνησε με Βοϊβοντίνα". redplanet.gr. 2011-06-24.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Katai za MOZZART otkrio da je nekoliko meseci vodio bitku sa zdravljem: Bio sam nenormalno "plav" i lekari su utvrdili da bolujem od trombocitopenije" (in Serbian). March 13, 2015.
- ↑ Aleksandar Katai finally made his debut (Serbian) - November 8, 2011
- ↑ Novosti: Katai prvi otišao iz Vojvodine (Serbian) 11 June 2013
- 1 2 "Lalatović: Katai ima problem u glavi, Partizanu je pomogla gej parada" (in Serbian). October 7, 2014.
- ↑ Mozzart Sport: ZVANIČNO: Katai u Zvezdi! (Serbian) August 31, 2014
- ↑ RTS: Katai ostaje u Zvezdi, potpisao ugovor na dve godine! (Serbian) 26 June 2013
- ↑ S. Ilijoski. Novosti: “Desetka” Zvezde među najproduktivnijim igračima u Evropi: Katai u društvu velikana (Serbian) October 30, 2015.
- ↑ Malteški vitez Aleksandar Katai! (in Serbian). Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ↑ On je Katai, on je Magiko! (in Serbian). Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ↑ "Aleksandar Katai, calidad y gol para redondear el ataque albiazul" [Aleksandar Katai, quality and goal to round up the white-and-blue attack] (in Spanish). Deportivo Alavés. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ↑ Mozzart: Zaslužen poziv: Katai u reprezentaciji Srbije za Albaniju i Portugaliju! (Serbian) October 5, 2015. Retrieved October 30, 2015
- ↑ Aleksandar Katai profile at Soccerway
- ↑ Veljko Ivanović. "Blic: Uz moju Teu sve je lakše i lepše!".
External links
- Aleksandar Katai profile at BDFutbol
- Aleksandar Katai stats at footballdatabase.eu
- Aleksandar Katai at thefinalball.com
- Aleksandar Katai – UEFA competition record