A first-team debut at 16. Leaving his family behind at 18. Securing a move to Newcastle United at 19...it has been quite a rise for Miodrag Pivas, but you get the sense the determined youngster is just getting started if the words of former SV Grodig boss Heimo Pfeifenberger are anything to go by.
"His mentality is so strong," he told ChronicleLive. "He left Salzburg without his parents to go to Serbia alone last summer. His mother was very sad.
"It's not normal that a young guy goes alone to Serbia, but he was sure that he could make a better step there than in Austria and followed his instinct. It was a very good step for him."
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Pivas has followed his instinct once again. That same fearless mentality will be needed at Newcastle, but the new arrival clearly backs himself. This is a player who genuinely believes he can one day make an impact at St James' Park and moving away is nothing new to him.
Pivas was 12 when the family left Serbia to relocate to Austria for work and the youngster made his first-team debut for Grodig under Pfeifenberger just a few years later. Pivas may have understandably been a 'quiet' player off the pitch amongst men at Grodig, but the steely prospect was 'aggressive' on it.
"He's a very smart player," Pfeifenberger said. "He has a very good overview on the pitch. His anticipation is very good. He can play as a defender and he's a good central midfield player as well like he was with us.
"He was not afraid. He only had three weeks' training before his first game with us and he played very well. It was a great moment to see that a young player could play at that level.
"The older players might think, 'It's too young' but that's not my vision as a coach. When a young player is good, he must play with the best and that was my view with Miodrag. He was the youngest player who ever played in the Regional League."
After breaking into Grodig's first team, and helping Serbia reach the semi-finals of the under-17 Euros, Pivas returned to the country of his birth last summer and developed into an out and out centre-back under former Chievo defender Ivan Radovanovic at FK Jedinstvo Ub. Pivas was named the club's young player of the year and helped his side win promotion to the Serbian top-flight.
That progress did not go unnoticed. Following just a season in his homeland, Newcastle had seen enough and made their move. Should that have come as a surprise?
After all, as much as Newcastle are targeting first-team additions, the Magpies are also scouring the globe for emerging talent like Pivas who, in the words of CEO Darren Eales, is a 'promising talent with high potential'. At a time when Newcastle are limited by spending restrictions, these low-risk moves could save the black-and-whites millions in the long run or, in the case of Yankuba Minteh, generate substantial profit down the line.
The club have even brought in talent spotter Marcel Bout, who has set out to find the 'new Haaland, Bellingham and Musiala' before they are worth £100m-plus, and Pivas arrives with a burgeoning reputation in the game. Nemanja Matic, the former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder, who owns a stake in FK Jedinstvo Ub, said Pivas was a 'huge talent with serious potential' of the like Serbia have not seen since the days of Nemanja Vidic and Branislav Ivanovic while the 19-year-old is even represented by the same agency, Universal Twenty-Two, as Alexander Isak. So could the new arrival one day make the step up?
"Newcastle is a great club, an international club, in one of the best leagues," Pfeifenberger added. "It's a very important step for his progress.
"He must work very hard. It's a big chance for him. I think he can be a very good international player, but the level is very high at Newcastle and in England.
"There are a lot of players from all over the world, but he must work harder than the others. I wish him all the best. I think he can go up."
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