Bulls in the Pros: Neven Subotic

To kick off my little miniseries and go over how some of our Bulls alumni are doing in professional sports, I decided to go with something a little bit different. Although soccer by far isn’t the most popular sport in the United States, USF has shown their level of quality reaching the Elite Eight in this year’s NCAA tournament before falling to number two seed Creighton in overtime. To honor arguably USF’s best team, we are going to start by doing a highlight on Borussia Dortmund defenseman, Neven Subotic.

Subotic, who is of Serbian descent, moved to the United States in 1999 prior to living in Germany for five year after escaping the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina which was torn apart by war. His family settled in Salt Lake City before moving to Bradenton where Neven’s sister could join the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. After training in a local park, Subotic was spotted by one of the coaches for the United States U-17 national team, ultimately offering him a spot in the residency camp for youth players. Since the 23 year old wasn’t part of a team, he began practicing with the USF squad.

Neven’s time with the Bulls didn’t last long as he was spotted by scouts while playing for the U-17 team. From there he signed with the German club Mainz 05, working his way up to eventually becoming a starter in the Bundesliga, or highest level of German soccer. His then head coach, Jurgen Klopp transferred to Borussia Dortmund, taking Subotic with him to the new club.

Playing for Dortmund, Subotic grew to become one of the most dominant players in the Bundesliga. In three years, Subotic has scored ten goals, a significant number for defensive players, while also becoming a starter for the Serbian national team. Although he became a United States citizen and played for the U-17 squad, Neven decided to play for his Serbia. From here on out things are looking good for the 6’4”ft centre back as he continues playing for the national team while receiving many offers from international top clubs such as Arsenal London and Manchester United.