Petar Ratkov

Issue number 375 of the CIES Football Observatory puts Ratkov in the 79th place of 100 best performing U21 outfield players from 32 European leagues according to players’ performance compared to teammates, the employer team’s sporting level, as well as that of opponents, covering eight different game areas: air defence, ground defence, recovery, distribution, take on, chance creation, air attack and shooting.

Ratkov is the third-youngest player on the list at the age of 18.6, the only Serbian player on the list, and his game profile is characterized as a target man shooter.

Individual

Petar Ratkov (Петар Ратков; born 18 August 2003) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a centre-forward for Red Bull Salzburg and the Serbia national team.

On 18 June 2023, Ratkov signed for reigning Austrian Bundesliga champions Red Bull Salzburg on a five-year contract.

Ratkov is of mixed Bulgarian and Croatian Serb descent.

He holds both Serbian and Bulgarian citizenships which made him able to represent Serbia or Bulgaria; he was also eligible to play for Croatia through his mother's aforementioned latter descent.

In September 2023, he declined a call up for Bulgaria, committing himself to Serbia national team.