Aleksandar Kolarov joins Inter

MILAN – Aleksandar Kolarov is officially an Inter player. The Serb joins on a permanent deal from Roma.

You never get used to war, but to sirens you do. Or at least, that was the case for Aleksandar Kolarov and his friends. They were 14 years old and life in Belgrade was certainly different for them than it was for their contemporaries. No, it was punctured with air-raid sirens. Schools, closed. Days were spent playing football on the street, waiting for the siren’s wail. This was challenged up to a certain point, though: the free football played by these lads went on past midnight, past the curfew. Passion and obsession, in a positive sense.

Aleksandar, born in 1985 and with a long career in the game behind him, has a visceral love for the football. From the Red Star Belgrade academy to Inter, via Čukarički Stankom, OFK Beograd, Lazio, Manchester City and Roma. Above all though, via his back garden and games with his brother Nikola. Two games in particular: first, the two brothers would place the ball in the middle and race, from opposite ends, to contest it, like in water polo. Then, free kicks, looking for an impossible angle, with the neighbours waiting to shout at the boys from their balconies.

From the left full-back position, his game is one of motivation and discipline. And an air of seriousness that Aleksandar has always carried, at the cost of coming off a little surly. That he is not, he is simply Kolarov: a lover of the football, conscious of his own ability and with a desire, even at 35 years of age, to add pages to a story, which has seen him become captain of Serbia, of which he is very proud.

This is Aleksandar Kolarov: not just free kicks, which everyone knows so well. But a new Interista. #WelcomeKolarov