‘It would be very nice and cool to return to the Netherlands one day’
Dutch professional footballers can be found in all corners of the world, from the spotlight of European competitions to the more spotlighted employments on other continents. In the Over de Grens section, Voetbalzone speaks to a player who is active outside the national borders. This time, attention is paid to Ivan Pavlic, who left his hometown of Rotterdam at the age of fourteen and ended up at the Portuguese Académica Coimbra via Royal Antwerp last summer.
By Chris Meijer
When Ivan Pavlic steps onto the balcony of his apartment in Coimbra, he can see the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra. A colossus of a stadium, especially when you consider that the player is currently the number eighteen of the Liga Portugal 2 and can fill at most three thousand of the thousand seats. The stadium is a heirloom of the 2004 European Championship, which was played in Portugal and where Coimbra was one of the eight host cities. “It’s best for a club that plays at the second level. You can compare it a bit with the Philips Stadium, but it is never full here”, nods Pavlic. “I know Académica as a club that has always played at the highest level. This is the oldest club in Portugal. Académica should actually play at the highest level, but in recent years things have not gone well. The ambition is to go back to the highest level.”
Pavlic poses in the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra of Académica.
It was those ambitions that started Pavlic last summer to opt for Académica Coimbra, which started in 2016 with the start of the second level is active. “The highest level in Portugal is a nice podium. They are right to see the stadium and the club, that gave a good feeling,” the 20-year-old attacking midfielder admits. Pavlic – child of Serbian parents – was born in Rotterdam and spent the early years of his early career at Excelsior, Smitshoek and Spartaan’20. At the latter, the famous Rotterdam amateur club Pavlic was discovered when he was fourteen by scouts from Royal Antwerp. the big old one brought him to Belgium with his mother, stepfather, brother and sister.
“It was impossible to open and close every day. You leave everything behind: your best friends, family. It’s pretty close, yet not around the corner. That was difficult as a fourteen-year-old. In retrospect, I’m glad I made that offer, because it brought me to where I am today,” says Pavlic. The start at Antwerp was difficult, because he had to be transferred from a Dutch amateur club to a foreign professional club
As a youth player for amateur club Smitshoek.
“Gill Swerts (former defender of Feyenoord, Vitesse and AZ and since 2019 trainer of Antwerp Under 21, ed.) saw it as something positive that I played football in the Netherlands for nine years and only then went to Belgium. Belgian football is different, it is harder and more physical. I was shocked, the first two years I had to adapt. Other systems, you get the challenges and it’s not always pretty. That helped me, I’ve made a lot of progress physically. That I have all that is only positive.” When Frank Vercauter took over from Ivan Leko who left for Shanghai Port during the winter break last season, he transferred Pavlic from the promises to the first team.
Pavlic eventually four times until the Antwerp match, three times in the league and during the match against Rangers in the Europa League. “That was fantastic, of course. You work hard for that from the moment you enter the youth academy. It’s quite something that you experience up close. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to make minutes, but the four games I’ve been on the bench in total were a great experience.” Antwerp wanted to continue with Pavlic after last season and offered him a two-year contract with an option for another season. Both sides disagree about the sporting perspective for the youngster. “It wasn’t an easy choice to say ‘no’ and go abroad, but I wanted to be a big part of a first team and go slow. I had expected that Antwerp would also offer that perspective, but it turned out the way it turned out. Then you quickly start looking at other options. I was open to going abroad.”
There were several options, but Pavlic’s choice fell on Académica. The first months in Portugal were difficult for him. “It took some getting used to. The language, the people, the weather,” he sums up. “I had to do everything myself. Cooking for example. The food was no longer ready for me. Now and then I made pasta at home, but whole dishes… No, not that. I’m not a top chef now, but I can cook some food. I also have to arrange transport. In the meantime I have a car, that was not the case in the beginning. In the summer we train at ten o’clock in the morning and then the temperature already rises to thirty degrees. A workout lasts two hours, so after an hour and a half it is sweltering hot. That heat was very difficult, the training sessions during the preparation were tough. I thought the preparation with Antwerp was already tough. But this… The training in combination with the weather: really tough.”
Pavlic during a training session in Antwerp, with Jordan Lukaku behind him.
During the preparation for this season, Pavlic played as a substitute against FC Porto. “I came in as a false striker. No, I didn’t play against Pepe there. He was not on holiday yet, because of the European Championship. I was facing Mbemba, which is a beer. Those weren’t the easiest twenty minutes of my life, but definitely.” However, it could be continued even for these playing minutes until the season officially kicked off at the end of July. A week before the first Portimonense cup match, he was informed that an error had been made with his registration with the Portuguese Football Association. “Of course it is the best beach, it gets in your head anyway and it made the first two to three months quite difficult.”
Pavlic has almost found his niche in Coimbra, in his words a student city that is alive and can be compared to Breda. Even at this time of year the temperature is still mild. “All those Brazilian guys are used to 40 degrees, so 25 degrees is quite tasty for chicken. There have been times when I came in short-sleeved and it was sweltering hot outside, those guys were wearing a pullover thermal shirt,” laughs Pavlic. He trains with the first team of Académica and makes his minutes in the Under 23, the highest youth team active in the Liga Revelação. “You play against Braga, Vitória Guimarães, Sporting, Portimonense, Marítimo, you name them. I did not know that the competition is so alive and serious, it is also broadcast on television.”
Has the move to Académica worked out for him for the time being as expected? “Not right away, no. Actually, I expected that I would be a basic player at the first in August, but it doesn’t always go the way you want it,” replies Pavlic. What didn’t help him in that regard is that the ambitious Académica was not activated. He almost experienced three trainers in Portugal: Rui Borges was evicted when Pavlic was eligible to play and his successor João Carlos Pereira protected it for less than two months. The results have improved somewhat under the current trainer Pedro Duarte in the last weeks before the winter break. Pavlic hopes to be able to play a significant role in the main force in the second half of the season. During last week’s duel with Rio Ave, Pavlic was in the match selection for the first time, without playing minutes.
“I’m doing well in the Under 23, making my goals and minutes and playing good matches, the coach of the first also sees that. I’m knocking on the door. Things can go fast in football. The right way, the bad way. Fortunately, things are now moving in the right direction. If I keep going like this, I’m sure it will be fine.” “I want to be able to do more of my thing on the pitch from October. The stress in my head about being forced to show that I was a good football player subsided a bit. I just had to do my thing and show what I could do, that happened when I also found rust outside the field.”
As far as Pavlic is concerned, Académica is not his ceiling. “It would be very nice and cool to return to the Netherlands one day. I love the Eredivisie, I watch a lot of matches. But I think as a player the best would be in Italy or England.” In the end, it should ultimately help him achieve his ultimate dream: to become international. Pavlic has options in that overview with Serbia, the Netherlands and Belgium. “I would really like to play for Serbia. That’s definitely something I’m really working towards right now, to play for a Serbian national team. If the Netherlands also belt, that will be a difficult choice. I have to make that as easy as possible and follow my heart, when that choice comes. You should not listen to family, your manager, the club of friends, but make the choice purely from your heart.”