Tin Jedvaj: Meet Leverkusen’s Hugely Promising Attacking Defender

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 13, 2014

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A teenage full-back who is scoring spectacular goals in the Bundesliga—is Tin Jedvaj the next big thing?

In little more than two weeks—16 days, to be precise—he recorded two goals and two assists for his club. He also made his full international debut for Croatia, aged 18.

But Jedvaj doing so well in an attacking sense at such a young age is not even the most interesting thing about his recent success. It is the fact that he is a defender.

You could never tell by watching his goals. Against Hertha BSC on August 30, he cut inside from the wing and sneaked behind the defence to receive a pass, throwing the goalkeeper off balance before placing a left-footed shot. Against Werder Bremen on Friday, September 12, he got the ball on the edge of the area, smashing it off the crossbar and into the net with his right foot.



Of course, those two situations only begin to tell the story.

He needs to improve defensively, as evidenced by an own goal he scored against Hertha. His positioning is not always ideal and he seems prone to making risky passes, which is not a trait that most coaches desire from a defender. But his overall performance has been very, very promising.

Another product of Dinamo Zagreb’s youth academy, which gave us Real Madrid’s Luka Modric, Internazionale’s Mateo Kovacic and Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren, Jedvaj is a son of an ex-professional footballer from Bosnia—just like his former team-mate, Barcelona’s Alen Halilovic. His father Zdenko was a decent defender, who stayed in Croatia after finishing his career.

Jedvaj junior rose through the youth ranks to make his debut for Dinamo in February last year. Merely five months later, he was sold to Roma.

He didn’t have time to leave his true mark at Dinamo, but in those 14 appearances for the Croatian champions he did hint at his vast potential. He pla...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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