Aleksandar Kolarov played for Lazio from 2007 to 2010.
Kolarov was born in Belgrade on November 10 1984. He started his football career in the youth teams of Red Star Belgrade but his professional debut came in 2004 with another Belgrade team, FK Čukarički. He played there for a year and a half before signing for OFK Beograd in January 2006.
In 2007 he came to Lazio. A left back, but he occasionally also played at midfield, his main characteristic was his powerful left shot. He could take free kicks from a great distance and always be dangerous. He was often compared to Sinisa Mihajlovic.
He played three very profitable seasons with the Biancocelesti winning two trophies: the Coppa Italia 2008-09, where he scored the fourth spot kick in the final penalty shoot out and a goal in the semi-final, and the Super Coppa in 2009 against Inter.
In the summer of 2010 Lazio could not turn down the €18 million offer from Manchester City and Kolarov went to play in the Premier League. With Lazio he appeared in 104 games (82 in Serie A, 13 in Coppa Italia, 3 in Champions League, 5 in Europa League and one Super Coppa final) and scored 11 goals (6 in Serie A, 4 in Coppa Italia and 1 in Europa League).
At Manchester Kolarov won a lot of trophies: two Premierships (2011-12 and 2013-14), an FA Cup in 2011, a Community Shield in 2012 and two League Cups (2013-14 and 2015-16). He played a total of 247 games with 21 goals.
Despite stating many a time while at Manchester that he really wanted to come back to play for Lazio and showed a lot of affection for the Biancocelesti, in 2017 he signed for Roma. A shock for Lazio fans who were really fond of the Serb and never would have imagined him joining their hated rivals.
He certainly did not have an easy time with the Roma fans in his three years with the Giallorossi. Despite playing a lot and giving a good contribution, there were a number of incidents with fans culminating with a rather harsh banner in a home Champions League match of 2019. He did however extend his contract but a further dispute with the Roma fans meant that it was time to go.
In 2020 he joined Inter. He played for two years in Milan but appeared just 15 times and at the end of the 2021-22 season he decided to quit.
Kolarov was a very important player for the Serbian national team. He played 94 games for his country (11 goals) playing in the World Cup of 2010 (two caps) and 2018 (three caps as skipper).
Aleksandar Kolarov is one of the three players who have scored in derbies for both sides (one for Lazio and two for Roma), the other being Arne Selmosson (two for Lazio and three for Roma) and Pedro (one for each team, for the moment).
Lazio career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa League | Super Coppa |
2007-08 | 32 (3) | 24 (1) | 5 (2) | 3 | - | - |
2008-09 | 31 (3) | 25 (2) | 6 (1) | - | - | - |
2009-10 | 41 (5) | 33 (3) | 2 (1) | - | 5 (1) | 1 |
Total | 104 (11) | 82 (6) | 13 (4) | 3 | 5 (1) | 1 |
Sources