Yahoo News Aston Villa pay tribute to tragic Matija Sarkic
Aston Villa have paid tribute to their former youth goalkeeper Matija Sarkic, who has died at the age of 26.
Sarkic was a hugely promising teenager when he joined Aston Villa from Anderlecht in 2015. He starred in an under-21s side that reached the Premier League 2 play-off final in his first season and appeared on the first team bench in his second before loans at Wigan Athletic and Livingston, as well as in non-league, as part of his development.
Villa wanted to keep him but, following the arrival of Pepe Reina, he saw a clearer pathway to the first team at Wolves and he went on to show his promise with further loans at Shrewsbury, Birmingham - where he was crowned player of the season, and Stoke before a permanent move to Millwall last summer.
He had endured injury problems along the way but seemed to be showing his true potential as he played regularly for Millwall while establishing himself as number one for Montenegro at international level.
A statement from Aston Villa said: "Everyone at Aston Villa is deeply saddened by news of the passing of our former goalkeeper Matija Šarkić. Matija joined our Academy in 2015 and spent five years with the club, during which time he made his full international debut for Montenegro, before departing in the summer of 2020.
"The thoughts and condolences of all at the club are with his family and friends at this incredibly sad time."
The Villa Academy social media account, which follows Villa's youth team, posted: "Difficult to put the news of this morning into words. Former Villa goalkeeper Matija Sarkic has passed away at the age of 26. Rest in peace, Mati. You and your family are in our thoughts."
David Downes had been Villa's head of academy recruitment when Sarkic was brought in from Belgium.
He later recalled: “I knew the agent of his brother, Oliver, who was at Benfica at the time, we ended up having a chance conversation about it. He asked if I had seen Mati – which I had – but I didn’t realise he was born in Grimsby. I remember asking him to send me a picture of his passport.
“We needed a goalkeeper, we had seen quite a few and it was a bit of a tip off that Anderlecht thought they had one younger that was better.
“Matija was with Montenegro Under-19s and it was one of those things where we were with Villa, you see a decent goalkeeper, he’s at Anderlecht and you think ‘We have got no chance of getting him’. He came over and had a lot of good things going for him, the thing that made us scratch our heads was that Anderlecht were willing to let him go – and willing to let him go quite cheaply.
“We only paid about £30,000 for him. With his pedigree we were thinking ‘what is wrong with him?’ He came over with perfect English, a great kid, incredibly driven and knew where he wanted to be and how to get there.”
