Nikola Vlašić is a famous Croatian footballer playing for the Russian football club CSKA. The athlete plays in the position of an attacking midfielder.
Biography
The future footballer was born in October 1997 on the fourth in a family of athletes. The father of the family Josko Vlašić, a famous Croatian track and field athlete, has won various competitions several times, and also set a national decathlon record. Nikola's mother Venus played basketball and competed in skiing competitions.
Parents sent Nikola to the football section when he was four years old. At the age of nine, he began to play in the children's team of the football club Omladinach Vranjic. The talented boy progressed quickly and showed excellent results. At the age of 14 he moved to the more prestigious and famous Croatian club Hajduk Split. For four years he represented the youth team of the new club, simultaneously signing a contract with the opportunity to play for the main team.
Career
As a professional footballer, Vlašić made his debut in the summer of 2014 in the match against the Irish Dundalk, which took place as part of the qualifying cycle of the Europa League. The match ended in a 2-0 victory with Nicola scoring one of the goals. Also, this match updated the club's record, Vlašić became the youngest player to appear in Hajduk's colors on the field. At the time of his debut, he was sixteen years old and nine months old.
On 20 July of the same year, Vlašić made his first appearance in the national championship in a match against Istra. Vlašić scored his first goal in the Croatian Championship three months later in the match against Zadar. During the season, Nikola regularly appeared on the field and played almost all matches (37 games). Before leaving the club, the talented footballer set another kind of record: he became the youngest player to play a hundred games for Hajduk Split.
After four productive seasons at the Croatian club, Vlašić attracted the attention of the English club Everton. At the end of August 2017, the parties agreed on the transfer of the Croatian footballer to the toffee camp for ten million pounds. The contract was for five years. In September, Nicola made his debut for the new Premier League team against formidable rival Tottenham Hotspur.
At the end of the month, in the match against Apollo, the Croat scored his debut goal for the Liverpool club. In the return match against the Cypriot club, he scored again, providing his team with a landslide victory. Despite a good start in the English championship, Vlašić could not cope with serious competition and was firmly entrenched in the rotation. During the season, he made only nineteen appearances on the field, while in most cases he came out as a substitute.
The following season, Vlasic went to the Russian club CSKA on loan. The army club was counting on a full-fledged acquisition, but the management of the "butterscotch" insisted on a lease. In the Russian club, Vlašić came to the spot and from the very first matches became one of the main figures on the field. Throughout the season, he regularly contributed to every team victory.
Having spent 31 meetings in the colors of the army club, Vlašić scored eight goals against his opponents. After the one-year lease agreement expired, CSKA again attempted to acquire a talented Croat, and this time the parties came to an agreement. The final transfer has been completed. Nikola permanently moved to Russia for 15.7 million pounds, and this acquisition became one of the largest in the history of the Russian club.
National team
Nikola Vlašić plays in the structure of the Croatian national team from an early age. In team colors, he first appeared in 2012 in the U16 national team. Since 2015, he has been playing for the u21 youth team. Despite his young age, Vlašić already made his debut in the main team in 2017 as part of a test game against the Mexican national team. To date, Nikola has played only five matches for the country's main team. In 2019, he was called up to the u21 national team for the European tournament, where he entered the field three times: in matches against Romania, France and England, in two meetings he was able to hit the opponent's goal.
Personal life
Nikola Vlašić has a sister named Blanca. The girl is actively involved in high jumps and managed to achieve excellent results: at the 2008 Olympics in China, Blanca took a silver medal, she also won the European Championship and took gold four times at the World Championships.
In 2017, Vlašić started his own Instagram account when he was still an Everton player, but he began to actively maintain it after moving to the Russian club CSKA. During this time, he has acquired a large army of fans. To date, the account of the Croatian footballer has 76 thousand subscribers. In addition, in various social networks you can find Russian-speaking fan communities and pages dedicated to Nikola Vlašić. The player himself has nothing to do with them, but their presence suggests that the famous football player very quickly fell in love with the fans of the army club and fans of Russian football.
As for the romantic relationships in the life of Nikola Vlašić, almost nothing is known about them, the footballer himself tries to avoid this topic in interviews, while emphasizing that the family is one of the most important things in the life of any person.
