Spartak Moscow may have made their latest signing for this summer transfer window in Serbian centre-back Srjan Babić. Based on at least the last match with the “Zenith” from St. Petersburg, the hole in the most vulnerable point of the team is huge. This can also be seen in the number of goals the capital club concedes per game in the RPL and the Russian Cup on average. As if this is not an eternal contender for the highest places, but the Voronezh “Torch” living at the bottom of the rating.
FC “Spartak”
To solve a large number of rojiblancos problems, Srdjan Babic, a stout (195 cm) and muscular, was released from Spanish Almería for an amount of about 5 million euros. The Serbian defender has a very interesting biography. At the age of 27, he had already had enough time to travel around Spain and even return to his home port.
A native of the Bosnian city of Banja Luka, he began his football career with the Vojvodina club. He gave this team only one year of his career, but in a short time he managed to win the local Cup, in the final in which he even scored a goal. Such successes could not be overlooked in the national team. Srjan was called up to the first team of the Serbian youth team, which to the astonishment of many specialists won the U-20 World Cup in 2015. Babić played every game in that tournament, including the winning final against Brazil.
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Thanks to his triumph in the national team, in the same 2015, Srdzhana took the Real Sociedad of Serbia for 1 million euros, but Babich failed to break into the main team of the La Liga club, and he was sent to the farm club of the Society in the third division. In 2016, the Serbian defender was loaned to the Reus Deportiu club from Segunda. In the summer of 2018, the giant returned to his home port, Crvena Zvezda handed over €800,000 for the player. Babich, on paper, was still a member of the Belgrade club, but left it periodically in search of a more prestigious career continuation. So, in 2020, he moved to the modest Portuguese club Famalican.
With three Serbian league titles and one Champions League group stage appearance, it is surprising that Srjan found himself at such a modest Portuguese club, given that defenders from the Balkans have historically been highly valued in the European football market. But it was Babich’s performance for the Famalican that caught the attention of Spanish Almería. In the summer of 2021, the central defender went on loan to the then Segunda club. Playing for Almería in a total of 37 games and scoring one goal, Babic made the symbolic team of the season. After that, the Spanish bought Srdzhan from Crvena for €1.1 million.
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Last season was Babich’s debut in the Spanish Example. It is true that Almería floundered all season at the bottom of the table, but in the end it did not fly away, occupying 17th place. The Serb became one of the leaders of the team in terms of time spent on the field, having played 33 games at the base (in another game he came on as a substitute). He was sometimes even entrusted with the captain’s armband, which is a significant achievement for a person spending only his second season with the team.
As a result, Spartak got a real giant defender, but is it possible to be calm now? You are welcome. If we remember the arrival of another Serbian defender, Nemanja Vidić, to the team and how he cemented the defensive backbone of the rojiblanco club in the mid-2000s, we must also understand that the then manager Alexander Starkov did not have a great leap in the squad, yes and the game was built mostly from the stovetop, ie. Defense Guillermo Abascal has a constant rotation. The coach changes combinations and roles on the field, although the last bulwark is the first thing that should be played the most and not questioned. Perhaps it is the arrival of Babich that puts an end to the experiments of the Spaniard and gives the same cement in the rear of Spartak.
