Adam Mitchell (Bolton Wanderers | England)

Massive congratulations to Adam Mitchell who's trial has been successful, and has signed a 2 year deal with Red Star Belgrade!

Dont know much about him,but the more kiwis we can get playing at a semi decent level overseas the better,imo.

Great news!

On a side note, how did he get a trial there? Seems like a really left-field place to start - but hey, he's in!

He was born in Croatia. Some sort of Yugoslavian familiar link?

Red Star won the league by 28 points. Were unbeaten and only conceded 19 goals in 30 games.

Wonder if they will be allowed in the UCL this year.

How many of the Serb U20 WC winners playing encyclopedia Dale?

4 at the club

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_U-20_World_Cup_squads#.C2.A0Serbia

Yugoslavia? Boooooooooooo.

They had a European licence last year, and got knocked out in the first qualifying round of Europa League by Kazakhstani opposition.

They'll start in Qualifying Round 2 of the Champions League - should get through that, IFK Norrkoping is the only side there to avoid (know this since Dinamo can potentially draw them too).

From Qualifying Round 3 it'll get quite a bit tougher for them since their UEFA coefficient is not great.

Neat! Red Star is a great club, in the early 90 was the best football team on the planet

You can barely call winning one European Cup on penalties in 1991 equivalent to being the best team in the early 90s. AC Milan was.

ajax would be close too

AC Milan undisputedly, from late 1980s, to mid 1990s. Barcelona was near the top around that time too, but in the direct clash of the two AC Milan embarrassed them.

Ajax and Red Star were top quality, but for a very short period - Ajax between 1994 and 1996, and Red Star between 1989 and 1991. An interesting side note is that in the season that started AC Milan's European dominance (when they won the European Cup in the 1988/89 season), AC Milan and Red Star faced each other in the second round. It was 1-1 in Milan, and 1-0 to Red Star in the return leg when the game had to be abandoned because of fog, with about 20 minutes to go. The game was replayed from the scratch the next day, ended 1-1 and AC Milan won on penalties. If fog had not intervened - maybe Red Star could have had an additional European title to their name.

All I can say is - thank Christ for that fog.

Completely of topic but speaking of early/mid 90s Euro footy, does anyone else remember this game? I remember thinking it was the best match I've ever seen....and Ginola....I'd boof him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws1eZzmp9kI

Back on topic: Good work Mitchell! Next AWs Captain.

Did Mitchell ever spend any time under Ernie's eye at Nix?

George Weah! That was a sexy PSG side.

Yes, I was at the Red Star stadium (was a young student in Belgrade at the time) for that replay. What a game. What a player Marco Van Basten was (he scored the only goal for AC Milan). I am a Partizan Belgrade fan , but just had to go and see the game. AC Milan had ridiculously good team that year (well for several years). Ruud Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard , Franco Baresi etc. etc.

Back to topic :

Well done young Adam Mitchell. I am one of those lucky people to know Adam and his family personally and am very happy for them.  May this be a start of a very successful pro career !

So...wants to play for the AWs? and can and all that? What position is he?

He spent two years captaining the U20s before Bill took over for the tournament. He's a centre back. I assume he's eligible, though after learning the fact that he's born in Croatia now scares the shark out of me (Kiwi parents?)

Don't think he was born in Croatia.

He was born in NZ. His father is a Kiwi. I am rather sure that even his mother was born in NZ (her parents are Croatian).

Nah, don't worry - Adam is eligible.

Do you know if he ever trialled for the Nix?

He did trial for the Nix...A few months after Ridenton signed his contract...Now, how long ago was that - don't know. 2 yrs ?

The Nix and young NZ CB's don't mix.

Musa, Old and Adams. All came with big raps (Old particularly) and fell away.

to be fair the nix always seem to throw them in the deep end

He was a stand out at the back this year for WaiBop - centre half, quality player - would have looked at home in any of the sides really.

Thomas born in the Tron, played for WaiBop.

He's from Auckland originally, went to Rosmini College

Better than any centre-half currently in PNG (aside from Themi)

Been playing at Kiwitea St for years I thought. 

Wasn't he dropped from the Under 20's central defence after one bad performance at North Harbour?

for a brief period it was and would have been for more years but sadly communism collapses occur. Then the president of Red Star sold most of the team players and put the all money in a  fixed term account, years later the money vanished. 

Yes, I'm sure everyone was upset when communism fell in Europe :)

Marseille over that period would rank slightly higher than Red Star in any hypothetical rankings?

Communism really had pretty much nothing to do with it - everyone was too busy killing each other to take any note of that.

But yeah, I'd say between 1989 and 1991, they were one of the top sides in Europe - that midfield had Stojkovic, Savicevic, Prosinecki, and a bit later, Mihajlovic and Jugovic too.

The whole backline was shark and he got chucked so Tuiloma could go back in there.  I thought he'd been the best of the backs in those games and was unlucky to be chopped.

To go from Captain to bench must have been very hard... good on him for not quitting or giving up.

I'm a little disappointed more payers from the u20 have not seemingly gone or done anything beside take the college root.

And Boxall.

I wouldn't say they haven't done anything, in fact a lot of them seem destined to push on professional contracts in the next few years. 

Monty Patterson seems to be doing okay for himself in the UK with Ipswich, same with Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi and Clayton Lewis at Auckland City, who I think will become A-League players one day.

Cory Brown continues to get big wraps at Xavier University and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets drafted when he leaves. Pretty sure he is going to captain them this year. 

Then Joel Stevens and Andrew Blake have had stints with the Phoenix, Matthew Ridenton and Alex Rufer are obviously at the Phoenix on pro contracts, as is Oli Sail and Nik Tzanev is with Brentford. 

Nik has been released unfortuneatkly