Samed Baždar

Samed Baždar (Serbian Cyrillic: Самед Баждар; born 31 January 2004) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Real Zaragoza and the Serbia national team.

Partizan
At a very young age, he drew the attention of the football public to himself after a great season in the Serbian Cadet League, where he scored 39 goals and assisted 17 in the championship. Even then, European giants were knocking on Partizan's door, the famous Juventus was rejected. Baždar did great things, wrote history, but remained firmly on the ground. After a dream year in the cadet league, Samed continued with great performances in the following seasons in the youth league.

A graduate of the club's youth academy, Baždar made his professional debut for the club on 15 May 2021 at the age of 18, coming on as a 79th-minute substitute for Miloš Jojić in a 3–0 victory over Voždovac.

The 18-year-old drew the attention of the world public to himself when the British Guardian ranked him among the 60 greatest talents in the world, and the Spanish Marca wrote about him as an upcoming talent who is on the radar of Real Madrid and Atlético.

Baždar scored his first goal for Partizan on 9 July 2022 in a 4–0 away win against Javor in the first game of the season. He scored his third goal of the season on 2 October in Derby of Serbia in a 4–1 win against Vojvodina. In the last moments of the game, Baždar took the ball away from his rival in the middle of the field, he himself ran towards the rival's goal and set the final score. Baždar was the scorer again on October 30 in a 4–0 victory over Radnički Niš. It was the 85th minute of the game when Bibras Natcho played through the young Baždar, and the talented youngster from the school of (The Steamroller) placed the ball nicely in the net and increased to a big 4–0.

Baždar scored his first goal in the 2023–24 Serbian SuperLiga season in the 22nd round match against Radnik Surdulica. In the 23rd round Partizan kept the first place in the SuperLiga after defeating Železničar (3–1), and the young Baždar shined once again. The wonderkid had a goal, an assist and a foul made on him for a penalty after 30 minutes of football, so his performance resonated in the region as well - one of the most influential websites in Bosnia and Herzegovina proposed an "Invitation" for Baždar to the Football Association of Bosnia. On April 20, 2024, in the 173rd edition of the Eternal derby, Baždar scored his first goal against bitter rivals Red Star.

Zaragoza
On 17 July 2024, Spanish Segunda División side Real Zaragoza reached an agreement with Partizan for the signing of Baždar, who signed a five-year contract with the club.

International career
He was selected for the junior national team when he was 12 years old. He made his U15 debut against the United States of America. For the next age category, he played in a double match with Slovakia in Dunajská Streda, at the beginning of November 2019. The head coach Saša Ilić invited him to the Serbia under-17 for the double match with Bulgaria in September 2020. In the first of two meetings on the field, Baždar replaced Viktor Radojević after one hour of play, and in the 87th minute he scored for the final 0–2. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 European Under-17 Championship was cancelled. That's how he joined the older generation and in June 2021 he made his debut for the Serbia under-19 in a match against Romania. Later, he was invited to the "Stevan Vilotić Ćele" Memorial Tournament, where he was the scorer of the only goal for the minimal victory over Hungary. He scored another goal in the friendly match against Croatia in March of the following year. In the meantime, Baždar also played for the under-18 team, in a double match with Slovenia in September 2021.

Baždar made his debut for the senior Serbia national team on 25 March 2024 in a friendly against Cyprus.