Aleksandar Dragović

Aleksandar Dragović (Александар Драговић, ; born 6 March 1991) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serbian SuperLiga club Red Star Belgrade and the Austria national team.

He is well known for his performances as a tough-tackling centre-back.

Dragović started his career by playing in the youth teams of Austrian giants Austria Wien and started playing for their B-squad in 2007.

In summer 2009 he advanced to their first team, for whom he played 66 championship games.

There were also 15 games in the Europa League and 10 games in the Austrian Cup, which he won with Austria in 2009.

He was in the starting eleven of every match until the end of the 2010–11 Swiss Super League season and Dragović won the Swiss Championship title with Basel.

On 1 February 2011, Swiss Super League club FC Basel announced signing Dragović on a four and a half year contract.

He joined Basel's first team during the winter break of their 2011–12 season under head coach Thorsten Fink.

Dragović played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 12 February 2011 as Basel won 3–0 against FC St. Gallen.

To the beginning of their 2011–12 season season Dragović was member of the Basel team that won the 2011 Uhrencup, beating both Hertha Berlin 3–0 and West Ham United 2–1 to lead the table on goal difference above Young Boys.

The team entered the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League in the group stage.

On 7 December 2011, during the Champions League group C match at home in the St. Jakob-Park Dragović helped Basel defeat Manchester United to make his team become the first Swiss club to advance to the knockout stage of a Champions League.

Basel won the match 2–1, sending United out of the Champions league.

But in the round of 16, despite a 1–0 home win against Bayern Munich, it was the German team who advanced to the next round.

Dragović scored his first league goal for his new club on 1 October 2011 in the 3–0 home win against Servette FC.

At the end of the 2011–12 season he won the Double with his new club.

They won the League Championship title with 20 points advantage.

The team won the Swiss Cup, winning the final 4–2 in a penalty shootout against Luzern.

Basel had started in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League in the qualifying rounds.

But were knocked out of the competition by CFR Cluj in the play-off round.

They then continued in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage.

Ending the group in second position, Basel continued in the knockout phase.

Dragović scored a goal in the second leg of quarter-final matches against Tottenham Hotspur, whom they beat 4–1 on penalties after a 4–4 aggregate draw to progress to the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals, Basel were matched against the reigning UEFA Champions League holders Chelsea.

Chelsea won both games advancing 5–2 on aggregate, eventually winning the competition.

Basel played a total of 20 European matches that season.

Dragović missed solely the second leg of the semi-final at Stamford Bridge due to a yellow card suspension, but had played in all the other European ties.

In the 2012–13 domestic championship Dragović played in 32 of the 36 games and he scored three goals.

At the end of the 2012–13 league season he won the Championship title with the team.

In the 2012–13 Swiss Cup Basel reached the final, but were runners up behind Grasshopper Club, being defeated 4–3 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time.

In the away game in the Stade de Genève on 3 March 2013 Dragović scored his team's first goal after Valentin Stocker played a pass from the bye-line backwards into the centre and Dragović slotted home from short range.

After Servette had equalised, Dragović headed home a corner, taken by team captain Alex Frei, to the 2–1 final score.

Celebrating his goal, Dragović raised his arm in gesture.

But referee Sascha Amhof understood this as rude gesture against the Servette fans and showed the scorer a yellow card.

Because this was his second card in the game, Dragović was dismissed.

His third goal of the season was ten matchdays later in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park as Basel won 2–0 against the same opponent, Servette.

On 26 July 2013 it was announced that Dragović was leaving Basel and had signed for Dynamo Kyiv.

During his time with the club Dragović played a total of 142 games for Basel scoring a total of nine goals.

77 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, eight in the Swiss Cup, 27 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 30 were friendly games.

He scored four goals in the domestic league, one in the European games and the other was scored during the test games.