Filip Djordjevic was born in Belgrade, on September 17, 1987.
He went into the Red Star Belgrade youth academy at 8 and made his first team debut ten years later in his only appearance in the 2005-2006 season. The "Crveno-beli" (Red and Whites) won the league and cup double.
The following year he was sent on loan to Rad Belgrade in the second tier. He played 35 league games and scored 16 goals.
In 2007-08 he was back with "Zvezda" (Star) but in January, after 7 league games and 6 in Europe (3CL + 3 UC) with no goals, he joined Nantes in Ligue 2.
The "Maison Jaune" (The Yellow House) were promoted and Djordjevic played 19 games with 7 goals. The Bretons then definitely bought the Serb who made his Ligue 1 debut on August 9 and scored his first goal on November 29 versus Le Havre. He played 19 league games with 2 goals and 1 game in the Coupe de Ligue. "Les Canaris" however were relegated again.
He spent the next four seasons in Ligue 2 with a 15th, 13th, 9th and finally 3rd place with promotion. In these four seasons he played 117 league games with 40 goals plus 14 games in the domestic cups with 8 goals.
In 2013-14 back in Ligue 1 "Les Jaunes et Verts” finished 13th and reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. He played 27 league games with 10 goals and 2 in the Coupe de Ligue with 2 goals.
In 2013-14 he made a surprise move to Lazio. The Biancocelesti, under Stefano Pioli, had an excellent year finishing 3rd (CL Preliminary) and runners up in the Coppa Italia (Juventus 1-2 after extra-time). Djordjevic played 24 league games with 8 goals (Palermo x3, Sassuolo, Fiorentina, Empoli, Sampdoria, Roma) and 3 in Coppa Italia with 1 goal (Varese). In January he suffered a bad injury which kept him out of action until May. In the Coppa Italia final in May against Juventus, with the score blocked on 1-1 in extra time, Djordjevic hit an incredible double post with a long-range shot.
The following year was not as positive. Lazio were unsuccessful in their Champions League preliminary round (Bayer Leverkusen 1-4 on aggregate), lost the Italian Supercoppa (Juventus 0-2) and in the league finished 8th. In April Pioli was sacked and replaced by Simone Inzaghi. Djordjevic played 27 league games with 3 goals (Genoa, Frosinone, Sampdoria), 1 in Coppa Italia and 3 in the Europa League with 3 goals (Rosenborg x2, Dnipro).
In 2016-17 Simone Inzaghi stayed on, after Marcelo Bielsa had resigned after three days. Lazio had a better season and finished 5th (EL qualification). The Biancocelesti won a derby 3-1 and again reached the Coppa Italia final, defeating Roma in the semi-final, but lost to Juventus again 0-2. Djordjevic played 17 league games and 1 in the Coppa Italia with 1 goal (Genoa).
In 2017-18 he started the season with Lazio but made no appearances and was left out of the squad until his contract expired.
In 2018 he joined Chievo as a free agent. It was a bad season for the Clivensi who were relegated under three different managers, Lorenzo D'Anna (1-8), Gian Piero Ventura (9-12) and Domenico Di Carlo (13-38). Djordjevic played 13 league games with 1 goal (Fiorentina)and 1 game in Coppa Italia.
Over the next two seasons in Serie B the "Mussi Volanti" finished 6th and 8th, under Michele Marcolini (1-26) and Alfredo Aglietti (27-38 + playoffs) the first year and Aglietti the second. Djordjevic played 60 league games with 14 goals and 1 in the Coppa Italia.
He then retired at 33.
At international level he won 14 full Serbia caps with 4 goals (Chile, Wales, Russia, Ireland) and also played 14 games for the U21's with 8 goals.
Djordjevic was a classic centre-forward. He is 1.86 and 80 kilos, so physically strong. Despite his imposing size he was also surprisingly skilful and technical. This made him a good attacking partner to play off. In fact, his weakness as a striker, despite being nicknamed the Cobra, was his lack of killer instinct in front of goal.
At Lazio he was not a huge success but with two big question marks of what could have been. The first is what could have been in his first year when, after scoring 8 goals in 16 games (between the 5th and 20th fixture), he suffered a serious injury and was out for five months. The second is what could have been had his superb curling strike not hit both posts against Juventus but beaten Marco Storari to almost certainly give Lazio a cup triumph and written his name in Lazio's history books. As it is, under the letter D there are Dabo, D'Amico, Di Canio, Di Vaio, Doll, amongst others but no Djordjevic.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League | Super Coppa |
2014-15 | 27 (9) | 27 (8) | 3 (1) | - | - |
2015-16 | 32 (6) | 27 (3) | 1 | 3 (3) | 1 |
2016-17 | 18 (1) | 17 | 1 (1) | - | - |
Total | 77 (16) | 68 (11) | 5 (2) | 3 (3) | 1 |
Sources
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