Ivanovic, Branislav

Branislav Ivanovic

Written by Loz and last updated August 2009

[[fimg]=left]http://www.theshedend.com/fansite/images/Current_Squad/Branislav_Ivanovic/ivanovic%20for%20lokomotiv%20moscow%20april%202007.gif[/[fimg]] Branislav Ivanovic became Chelsea's second signing of the 2008 January transfer window following close behind Nicolas Anelka. The vast majority of Chelsea fans will know very little about him and I am no different however we will soon know his marks out of 20 for marking, tackling, pace and positioning which G4 will extract from FM2008 before claiming he first spotted him at an under 7s picnic football match in Moscow.

He was born on 2nd February, 1984 in the Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica which although entirely unknown by most of us is actually one of the oldest towns in the world, previously called Sirmium it was an ancient city within a province of the Roman Empire called Pannonia and a whole stack of Roman emperors were either born there or lived there.

Which I think brings us nicely along to the year 2001 (or so).

Branislav’s career started off with his local team FK Srem (a shortened version of FC SREM Sremska Mitrovica) for whose first team he broke into in the 2002/03 season going onto make 24 first team appearances before making the step up to the Serbian Superliga with a move to OFK Beograd in 2003. Despite being only 19 when he signed he quickly settled into the Beograd first team and went on to accumulate 73 appearances and six goals over a three year period in which he firmly established himself as a youngster of great potential.

[[fimg]=right]http://www.theshedend.com/fansite/images/Current_Squad/Branislav_Ivanovic/ivanovic%20for%20lokomotiv%20moscow%20against%20fc%20rostov%20in%20november%202006.gif[/[fimg]] His consistent performances and ability to play anywhere in the back four earned a move to Lokomotiv Moscow in 2006 and he settled straight into their first team becoming a permanent fixture in a side which were overshadowed by city rivals CSKA and Spartak Moscow. On signing him Lokomotiv coach Slavoljub Muslin hailed him as the "best young defender in Europe."

In 2007 Lokomotiv reached the final of the Russian Cup, thrashing Dinamo Mosccow 4-1 on aggregate in the quarter final and Spartak Moscow 5-1 in the semi final to set up a final against FK Moscow.

Garry O'Connor (later to join with Birmingham) scored the only goal of the game in the dying seconds of injury time helping Branislav win the first piece of major silverware in his career.

His performances for Lokomotiv began to catch the eye of some of the major clubs in Europe with the likes of Manchester United, AC Milan, Ajax, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and Inter Milan rumoured to be keeping a close eye on him. I have to say I am a tad sceptical about the authenticity of some of these rumours as there didn't seem to be a whole lot of competition when Chelsea moved to secure his signing in January 2008. Manchester United's interest was thought to be fairly firm however they were put off by the asking price.

[[fimg]=left]http://www.theshedend.com/fansite/images/Current_Squad/Branislav_Ivanovic/ivanovic%20captaining%20serbian%20u21%20side%20in%20june%202007.gif[/[fimg]] Branislav made 33 appearances for the Serbian U21 side who he also captained and made his breakthrough into the full international side in a friendly against Italy played in Toronto on June 6th, 2006. His first international goal (and only at the time of writing) was a late equaliser against Portugal in a Euro 2008 qualifier on September 12th, 2007.

The fee paid by Chelsea for his services is undisclosed but has been reported unofficially as being £8.9m. That does seem a hefty fee for a player not proved outside of Serbia and Russia however it should be recognised that he still had three years left on his existing contact and that would have pushed the fee upwards.

How he fairs with Chelsea, and the step up to Premiership football, remained to be seen however the early signs were not encouraging as he was rumoured to be a Tottenham fan!

By the time July 2008 came along Ivanovic's Chelsea career had been as successful as Linda McCartney's range of vegetarian dog food. He is yet to make his first team debut with the reasons given for this being a combination of lack of match fitness (when he signed for us in January the Russian season was already over) and also an injury that he picked up not long after joining (in training I think). He has featured for the reserve side a handful of times but the Summer of 2008 did see some rumours that he may be leaving the club (rumours he denied) without ever making a first team appearance. It did seem an insane amount of money to spend for a back up squad player but then again it wouldn't be the first time we had done that!

[[fimg]=right]http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll244/loz1905/Ivan.gif[/[fimg]] In the summer of 2008 there were rumours in the media that Ivanovic was interesting AC Milan and they were preparing a bid for him. Chelsea issued a statement denying that they were prepared to sell him.

Ivanovic finally made his Chelsea debut as a right back in the 4-0 Carling Cup 3rd round tie win against Portsmouth on September 24th, 2008. His performance in this debut earned rave reviews and begged the question why he had been left in the stiffs for so long. A few weeks later, with Alex and Carvalho injured, he filled in at centre half and made his league debut at the Bridge in a comfortable 2-0 win against Aston Villa. Once again he put in an assured performance and with John Terry still not on top form there was some who wondered whether the captain should be assured his first team spot. Crazy talk I know but if there were no crazy people in the world then who would take up the away fans allocation when Liverpool visited the Bridge.

[[fimg]=left]http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll244/loz1905/Ivan2.gif[/[fimg]] Speaking of Liverpool…

After coming through yet further rumours of a move away from Chelsea (this time Fiorentina were the interested party and this one is supposed ot have got as far as negotiations between the two clubs) Ivanovic was to make a mark on the club which had all of rushing for our sculpting kits to create a statue of him in our back garden. Champions League quarter final tie against the bike thieves from up North and, to add insult to injury, our appeal to have the tie taken away from Anfield on health and safety grounds was rejected by UEFA. We would have gladly taken them back to the Bridge with a 1-1 draw but Ivanovic had other ideas.

We had gone behind after only 6 minutes to a goal by Liverpool’s lady boy Fernando Torres but two glorious headers by Ivanovic either side of the interval turned the tie on its head and Drogba polished things off to give us a commanding 3-1 lead. Not only did those goals make him an overnight hero (longest overnight hero I can think of) amongst Chelsea fans, they also helped cement him a place in Guus Hiddink's first team.

Carlo Ancelotti took over as Chelsea manager in the summer of 20inI his favoured diamond formation. I say strangely as Bosingwa is much better suited to a diamond formation than Ivanovic. That decision didn't last long - in fact it only lasted 45 minutes as Bosingwa came on for Ivan at half time in the Community Shield against Manchester United and the team looked far better immediately.

With Carvalho back alongside Terry in the centre and Bosingwa enjoying the freedom of the right flank it appeared as if 2008/09 was going to be another frustrating season for Ivan.