Romano Exclusive: Meet Niko Ninkovic, the man who downed Milan and nearly went to Inter
Downing Milan was no fluke: Genoa president Enrico Preziosi’s latest find, Nikola Ninkovic, is talented. The man who opened the scoring in Genoa’s 3-0 rout of AC Milan is of Partizan Belgrade’s Class of 1994, coming through the ranks with Lazar Markovic of Liverpool and Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Inter may regret not picking him up when they had a chance. Considering they recruited Stevan Jovetic two seasons ago, they could have nabbed the man who beat the Montenegrin’s record of being the youngest Partizan captain. Ninkovic was 17 years, 10 months and 12 days old when he was given the armband.
Inter watched him in 2013, when they faced the Serbs in Europa League action. They were originally chasing Lazar Markovic, but after watching Partizan on a number of occasions they were swept away by Ninkovic, who turned out to be too expensive for them, but only by several million or so.
Two and a half years later, Genoa chose to bet on Ninkovic in a joint operation with Chievo, beating a keen, but not as reactive Napoli side.
A talented attacking midfielder and winger, Ninkovic has one downside: he’s lazy in the classroom (he is only now beginning to learn Italian!) and training, and tends to give his best only in games.
Coach Ivan Juric, whilst a big admirer, went up to Ninkovic when he’d just joined, asking him in Italian how things were going… only to be met with silence.
“It was infuriating, learning the language is fundamental in order to integrate, and respect the country where one goes to work”.
Still, Ninkovic seems to be developing nicely and finally trying. He’s definitely a talent worth keeping an eye on.
