Legionnaires: Milan signed on with ETO FC Győr’s defender – Photos

Kerkez got into football in his hometown of Vrbas, a village close to Subotica in Vojvodina, Serbia. He then was a player for Hajduk Kula until the age of 14, ETO's official website states. Later, he attended a trial game at Rapid Wien where two boys, one being him, were chosen out of hundreds to join the club. He wasn't easy to deal with, so didn't spend a lot of time at Rapid. At his father's suggestion, he's been training at Miklós Fehér Academy in Győr for two years. In January, Juventus was also interested in Kerkez, but AC Milan was the choice of preference.

„I admit it wasn't easy to deal with Milos. Hence, I'm extremely grateful for ETO for taking in my son, said Sebastijan Kerkezto eto.hu. – Everybody helped, supported, taught, and loved him both on and off the field at the club. It's no surprise that he found a home here and likes ETO very much. I'm thankful for the amount of support my son has received. I'd like to specially thank Manager Imre Soós, Academic President Frigyes Tuboly, School President Zsolt Horváth, Technical Manager Ádám Nagy, and thank those teachers and coaches who made Milos be able to sign on with such a great team” – the emotional father said.

ETO notes that Kerkez was chosen by living legend Paolo Maldini, former defender of Milan. It's not a coincidence that Kerkez was introduced in Italy with the company of the 52-year-old Italian sportsman.

„Perhaps I don't need to stress that we've been given a great opportunity by the fact that Milos was invited to Milan by Maldini himself pointing out that this level of a player in this position cannot be found in the Italian club's youth team – said Dániel Kaposi, the player's manager. – They also said that Milos will be considered for the senior team, and that they would like to build him up this season so that he will be the other left-back alongside Theo Hernandez from the summer. So, there's a lot of work to be done and there's a challenge...”

PETER STARK ALSO DESERVES THANKS

„I thank my coaches in Győr very much, especially Péter Stark and Sándor Csató, for guiding my career so far, for finding the position where I can do the most for myself," said 17-year-old Milos Kerkez. "Not only did I become a better footballer at ETO, but I became more serious, and I think this is mainly due to the time when I was able to be with the adult team during the virus in the hotel for several weeks. I learned a lot from Tamás Priskin, both professionally and humanly. I can say that the ETO family has become my second family, and I'll never forget what I received here.”

Kerkez answered eto.hu's question that if one day he is capped for a national team, he'd prefer the Hungarian one to the Serbian one.

Translated by Vanda Orosz