Saša Lukić (Serbian Cyrillic: Саша Лукић, pronounced [sǎʃa lǔːkitɕ, sâ-]; born 13 August 1996) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays primarily as a defensive-midfielder for Premier League club Fulham and the Serbia national team.
Lukić was born in Varna, a village near Šabac, Serbia, FR Yugoslavia on 13 August 1996.
Lukić started playing football at POFK Savacium, a football school in Šabac, before joining Partizan as a trainee in August 2009.[2] He signed his first professional contract for the club in August 2013 on his 17th birthday, signing a three-year deal.
To gain senior experience, Lukić was immediately loaned to Teleoptik.[3] He played regularly for the Opticians in the 2013–14 season, making 23 league appearances and scoring three goals, as the club failed to avoid relegation.
On 16 May 2015, Lukić made his competitive debut for Partizan and played the full match in a 1–1 home league draw with Novi Pazar.[4] On 17 July 2015, he entered in the game against Metalac, replacing Stefan Babović in first game of 2015–16 Serbian SuperLiga.[5] On 8 August, he scored his first official goal for Partizan in the final minutes of a 2–1 home win over Spartak Subotica.[6] Two weeks later, he scored his second goal for Partizan in 3–1 away league win over Borac Čačak.[7] On 26 August 2015, Lukić made his debut in the UEFA Champions League in the second leg of the play-off round against BATE Borisov.[8] On 22 October, he played his first match in UEFA Europa League group stage against Athletic Bilbao.[9] In the absence of some players he captained the team for several games.[10][11]
On 29 July 2016, Lukić was signed by Italian club Torino.[12] On 17 October, he made his debut in Serie A in a 4–1 win away to Palermo, replacing Mirko Valdifiori. Lukić scored his first goal for Torino on 3 May 2019 in the Derby della Mole. Lukić followed the movement of the ball very well and in the duel he simply took the ball away from Miralem Pjanić and placed it in the net in a rather routine manner.[13] He scored his second goal on 26 May in the last game of the season in a 3–1 win over S.S. Lazio.[14] At the end of the 2018–19 Serie A, Torino finished in seventh position and thus secured participation in the Europa League qualifiers.
On 15 August 2017, Lukić was loaned to La Liga side Levante, for one year.[15]
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On 31 January 2023, Lukić joined Premier League side Fulham for an undisclosed fee, signing a four-and-a-half-year deal with the English club.[16] Lukić made his debut at Craven Cottage on 11 February, coming on in the 91st minute as a substitute for Andreas Pereira in a 2–0 win over Nottingham Forest.[17] Lukić was included in the starting line-up and played the whole game in the 0–3 loss against Arsenal.[18] Following a good run of games in the starting line-up, Lukić scored his first ever goal for Fulham in a 3–0 win against Tottenham Hotspur.[19]
Lukić debuted for the Serbian senior squad on 7 September 2018 in a 1–0 victory against Lithuania.[20]
Lukić was selected in Serbia's squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.[21] He played in all three group stage matches, against Brazil,[22] Cameroon,[23] and Switzerland.[24] Serbia finished fourth in the group.[25]
Lukić was selected in Serbia's squad for the UEFA Euro 2024. He played in all three group stage matches, against England, Slovenia and Denmark. Serbia finished fourth in the group.
Lukić is a quick, hardworking, versatile player with good vision, passing, and technique and well-rounded midfielder, who is also capable of playing in several positions, due to his ability to aid his team both offensively and defensively. A right-footed player, he is usually deployed as a creative attacking midfielder, due to his vision, passing, technique, and striking ability, as well as his adeptness at making attacking runs.[26]
| Club | Season | League | National cup[a] | League cup[b] | Continental | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Teleoptik | 2013–14 | Serbian First League | 23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 23 | 3 | ||
| 2014–15 | Serbian League Belgrade | 16 | 6 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 16 | 6 | |||
| Total | 39 | 9 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 39 | 9 | ||||
| Partizan | 2014–15 | Serbian SuperLiga | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2015–16 | 25 | 2 | 3 | 0 | – | 3[c] | 0 | 31 | 2 | |||
| Total | 27 | 2 | 3 | 0 | – | 3 | 0 | 33 | 2 | |||
| Torino | 2016–17 | Serie A | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 15 | 0 | ||
| 2017–18 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 1 | 0 | ||||
| 2018–19 | 24 | 2 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 25 | 2 | ||||
| 2019–20 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 0 | – | 4[d] | 0 | 36 | 1 | |||
| 2020–21 | 32 | 3 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 32 | 3 | ||||
| 2021–22 | 35 | 5 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 36 | 5 | ||||
| 2022–23 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 17 | 3 | ||||
| Total | 151 | 13 | 7 | 1 | – | 4 | 0 | 162 | 14 | |||
| Levante (loan) | 2017–18 | La Liga | 16 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | – | 18 | 0 | ||
| Fulham | 2022–23 | Premier League | 12 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 14 | 0 | |
| 2023–24 | 24 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 28 | 1 | |||
| 2024–25 | 30 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 35 | 0 | |||
| 2025–26 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 7 | 0 | |||
| Total | 73 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 0 | – | 84 | 1 | |||
| Career total | 306 | 25 | 17 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 334 | 26 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serbia | 2018 | 6 | 0 |
| 2019 | 6 | 0 | |
| 2020 | 5 | 0 | |
| 2021 | 7 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 11 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 7 | 0 | |
| 2024 | 10 | 0 | |
| 2025 | 6 | 0 | |
| Total | 58 | 2 |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 November 2021 | Rajko Mitić Stadium, Belgrade, Serbia |  Qatar |
1–0 | 4–0 | Friendly |
| 2 | 24 September 2022 |  Sweden |
4–1 | 4–1 | 2022–23 UEFA Nations League B |
Partizan
Serbia squads | |||||||||||||
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