It’s difficult to overstate the promise of young Lukic, born in Suljam, Serbia in the late 1990s – in the dying embers of the Yugoslav Wars. In 2015 he was spotted by scouts of the preeminent pan-Balkan talent factory that is Partizan’s youth academy. He moved away from his family and into an apartment with a group of other young hopefuls he’d never met before – all of this at the tender age of 11.
In the big city of Belgrade he ate, slept and breathed the game. He was being groomed for the top stages and looking every inch a future superstar. “It wasn’t just the best young players from Serbia, but from the whole region,” Lukic remembered. “Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro – the whole of the Balkans.”
Lukic spent nine of his 11 years there as captain of the club’s various age-group teams. But when it came time to sign for the first team in the Serbian SuperLiga, at the age of 17, there was no offer. He’d have to find his fortunes abroad. That seemed, given his high-profile scouting report, a minor bump in the road.
But first the Everton deal fell through. Then there was a falling out with his agent. After that unfolded a story far more common than those of shooting stars like Juventus’ Dušan Vlahović and Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrović – his academy mates at Partizan.
“It was frustrating. I was young and not very experienced and not very wise,” admitted Lukic, who will watch this November as eight members of his generation from Partizan play for Serbia in FIFA World Cup. “I was 17 and things didn’t go well and so I went a different way.
“I went to the United States,” he said.
He landed in Bartlesville, Oklahoma – smack in the middle of a sprawling and unfamiliar country. A friend of his was playing collegiate soccer there. And when head coach Jamie Peterson of the Oklahoma Wesleyan Eagles found out he had a player of Lukic’s pedigree and talent enrolling at the school, he fast-tracked a full-ride scholarship.
And so, instead of those footballing cathedrals of the old continent and the Champions League, Lukic played collegiate ball at the OKWU Soccer Complex against the likes of Missouri Valley College, Governors States and Central Methodist. “It [the transition] was difficult at first. The level of play at college was, well, different,” said Lukic, who despite a natural urge toward optimism admits to being “ready to quit the game; to hang it all up” at stages in his college career.
It was no surprise when Lukic was named an NAIA first-team All-American all four years he played at Wesleyan. He scored 24 goals and had 43 assists in 38 starts for the Eagles before graduating with a marketing degree last year. And despite his moments of doubt, Lukic “started to love it.” It helped that he met his future wife (who’s now pregnant with the pair’s first child) there in Oklahoma.
Professional Dreams Reemerge
And then, out of the blue and a long way from his time as the belle of the Partizan academy, the old tug of a possible pro career returned. “Leaving the game,” he said. “That just didn’t feel right.” But this time it wasn’t going to be Everton or the Premier League. Far from it.
He first lined up for Corpus Christi FC in USL’s all-amateur League Two before signing his long-awaited first professional contract with the Northern Colorado Hailstorm. It’s a club, less than fourteen months-old and still finding its feet, but making big waves in this inaugural season and the Open Cup too. “Some things in life don’t go as you plan, but it’s no reason to stop trying to get better,” Lukic added.
Still just 25, and with the talent and training he possesses, a future in the top flight of Major League Soccer (MLS) remains a distinct possibility for Lukic.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Stefan is playing in MLS in a few years,” confirmed Hailstorm coach Eamon Zayed, the Irish-born Libyan international who knows something about Cup runs as a former Irish Cup winner with Sporting Fingal and a League of Ireland Cup winner with Derry. “He has that kind of ability.”
