Vanja Milinković-Savić

Vanja Milinković-Savić's road to Napoli ran through a work permit rejection at Manchester United. Signed by the English club as a teenager after they paid Vojvodina roughly €1.75 million for his registration, he never made a first-team appearance and was released in November 2015 without playing a single match. He rebuilt his career from there, spending a season at Lechia Gdańsk before Torino bought him for €2.6 million in 2017. Loan spells at SPAL, Ascoli and Standard Liège followed, and it was back in Turin that he eventually became the club's undisputed number one. That long apprenticeship paid off in July 2025, when Napoli signed him permanently from Torino for a fee of €21 million spread over four years, as part of a deal that also sent Cyril Ngonge to Torino on loan. He put pen to a contract running to June 2029, with the option of a further year. At international level, Milinković-Savić has become Serbia's first-choice goalkeeper, a role he held at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where he started all three group games against Brazil, Cameroon and Switzerland. He was named in Serbia's squad for Euro 2024 but did not play. His first senior honour with the national team dates back further: in 2015, he was part of the Serbia squad that won the FIFA U-20 World Cup, though he served as understudy to Predrag Rajković throughout that tournament. With Napoli, he has already added the Supercoppa Italiana to his collection, won in 2025.