The Serbian shot-stopper has arrived at Stamford Bridge to compete with Robert Sanchez to become Mauricio Pochettino's No.1 – but who is he?
In February 2022, the New England Revolution lost their star goalkeeper to a European giant, with Matt Turner joining Arsenal. Just over a year-and-a-half on, the Revs will seemingly soon find themselves in a similar position. That's because Turner's replacement, Djordje Petrovic, has rapidly caught the eye of Europe's biggest clubs, and has now become the latest big-money signing at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea continue to add stars for the present and future.
As with most of their signings nowadays, it appears Chelsea have paid a premium to sign Petrovic, with reports claiming the club has agreed to a £14 million($17.5m) transfer fee that makes him one of the biggest outgoing transfers in MLS history.
The 23-year-old has become a legitimate star in New England, earning a nomination for MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in 2022 despite only taking over as starter after Turner's departure that May. In the 14 months since, he's been linked to Manchester United, Liverpool, Nantes and Nottingham Forest, having rapidly played his way onto the radar of Europe's elite .
A big move has seemed inevitable for Petrovic for some time. The Revs, meanwhile, have been reluctant to let him go and for good reason: Petrovic's departure will almost certainly doom their season. He's that important to the team, and replacing him will be no easy challenge.
With Petrovic's big move confirmed on Saturday, the expectation is that he won't just head to Europe to make up the numbers, but rather to start for Chelsea at one point or another, even if fellow summer signing Robert Sanchez will begin life ahead of him in the pecking order.
"When great teams like that are interested in you, that's great," Petrovic told GOAL earlier this year, "but I'm not paying too much attention to it because I'm happy here with the New England Revolution and I'm happy with my improvement and the way I work with the team from week to week. When the right time comes [to think about a transfer], then we'll see."
That time has now come, and GOAL can explain precisely why some of the biggest clubs in world football have been following Petrovic's progress…
GettyRoad to New England
Revs goalkeeper coach Kevin Hitchcock remembers the first time he saw Petrovic in action. The club was preparing for the inevitable: the loss of Turner. They knew their United States star was on his way out, and that meant it was time to start looking for his replacement.
Clips of three or four goalkeepers came across Hitchcock's desk, and, within seconds, he knew. "I just loved the way his plyometric jump was; that was the biggest thing for me," Hitchcock, the former Chelsea goalkeeper, told GOAL of Petrovicearlier this ear.
"That was something I saw with Matt Turner, and I knew I could improve it too. I said straight away, 'This is the one I want. Petrovic is the one.' So, we went to [Revs head coach Bruce Arena], and Bruce looked at the video for 45 seconds and he agreed. Everybody was on the same page."
But wanting a player and signing a player, those are very different things. At the time, Petrovic was playing for FK Cukaricki, having been in the club's academy since 2014. He'd featured for the club in the Europa Conference League and had made his Serbia debut in 2021.
Hitchcock is quick to praise the Revsfor getting the deal done so quickly. Petrovic, meanwhile, says it didn't take too much to convince him that a move across the Atlantic would present him with a chance to further his career in a big way.
"I wanted to take the next step," he says, "and so I thought that the MLS as a league and the Revolution were the right place for me. When that offer came, it just really sat right with me. They had a plan for me. When Matt would leave, I would step in and become the [first-choice] goalkeeper. I also worked really well with Kevin and, so far, it has turned out to be a good move for me!"
AdvertisementGettyLearning under Turner
Petrovic, as he says, was initially signed as a back-up. He arrived in April 2022 and Turner, eventually, left in May, and that meant for a little while the Revs had two top goalkeepers in the squad.
Turner, now the No.1 at Nottingham Forest, was on his way out, but he was far from checked out. During his final few months with the Revs, he took Petrovic under his wing, helping to prepare him for his inevitable ascension into the starting role.
"It was a dream. It was brilliant,' Hitchcock says. "Matt picked up straight away the things I was working on with Djordje and he was encouraging him every time. He was pushing him, so it wasn't just me pushing Djordje but Matt pushing Djordje. Matt was like a big brother to him. They got on so well."
Turner moved to Arsenal, leaving the starting spot to Petrovic, who wasted no time in making it his own. Somehow, after losing an MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in Turner, the Revs' goalkeeping got even better once Petrovic took over.
Breakout season
Petrovic made his first MLS start on June 12 against the Philadelphia Union. Two weeks later, he earned his first clean sheet with six saves in a 0-0 draw in Vancouver. And, from there, it all just snowballed.
By the time the 2022 season was over, he had seven clean sheets in just 21 starts, including a club-record run of four straight in July and August. He had the second-best save percentage of all MLS goalkeepers and four penalty saves, more than any goalkeeper since 2017.
He won MLS Save of the Year and came second in the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year voting, finishing behind Andre Blake. It was the third season in a row that the Revs had a goalkeeper finishing top two in the Goalkeeper of the Year vote, with Turner winning the award in 2021 and finishing second in 2020.
"As far as I'm personally concerned, last year was excellent," Petrovic said earlier this season. "I got used to and accustomed to MLS as a league, but we have not achieved our team goals."
Petrovic has been strong once again in 2023, keeping seven clean sheets in 22 matches. His 99 saves are most in the league, eight more than former Borussia Dortmund star Roman Burki at St Louis City, while his save percentage is the highest in the league of any goalkeeper that has started more than two games.
Petrovic has been a hit both on and off the pitch, quickly adjusting to life in Boston. He's working on his English and has, so far, enjoyed life in the U.S.
"Boston is the most beautiful city in the United States for me," he enthuses. "I haven't been to many cities, but among the cities that I visit, Boston is the best. It's so much like some of the best European cities!"
Getty ImagesThe next Brad Friedel?
Hitchcock has been around the game for a long, long time, having spent over a decade at Chelsea before embarking on a coaching career that eventually brought him to New England. That makes Hitchcock someone who knows what he's talking about when it comes to the goalkeeping position, but even he isn't quite sure how to label Petrovic.
"Athletically, he reminds me of Matt, who used to remind me of Brad Friedel," Hitchcock says. "Brad Friedel was a very athletic goalkeeper. But Djordje is a very different build to both. He has a longer reach, so he really is his own man. He does his own things."
It's pretty high praise. Friedel is an American soccer and Premier League legend, while Turner started for the U.S. at the World Cup in Qatar. Both have reached the pinnacle of the game, but Hitchcock believes Petrovic will too.
At 6'4", Petrovic has the height clubs look for in a goalkeeper and is about an inch or so taller than Friedel and Turner. As Hitchcock says, he has everything a coach can want athletically, but Petrovic's biggest asset, his coach says, is his confidence. The Serbian knows how good he is and can be. He doesn't waver.
He does, however, go through the growing pains that all 23-year-old goalkeepers do, but Hitchcock says he's rapidly improving the mental side of his game: "I'm trying to teach him different habits. Sometimes he finds it very difficult because he gets so frustrated with himself, which is good because he wants to be a better goalkeeper than what he already is."