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Dušan Stojinović: A Slovenian Power House

David G.

Transfer rumors, as of late, have connected Orlando City with another center back who is due to come in and bolster the back line. Throughout the offseason, Orlando City fans have been clambering for an addition to the center back corps, considering that Rodrigo Schlegel was traded away earlier this offseason and Thomas Williams was sent to Nashville. So who is Dušan Stojinović and what can we expect from the Slovenian center back? Let’s find out.

Transfer Rumors

Let’s talk about the rumor first before we jump into the player. Early on Friday, January 24, Tomasz Wlodarczyk (a reporter who covers Jagiellonia in the Polish league) reported that Dušan Stojinović could soon change clubs and that Orlando City was eying him. He additionally reported that talks were advanced and the deal was very close.

 

Shortly after that tweet, Tom Bogert of The Athletic tweeted a similar rumor and added a bit more context to it, saying that he was not only hearing the same thing on the U.S. side but that the deal was close.

 

All of this culminated in one more news outlet that covers Polish soccer, parroting that same information but also adding a bit more. The outlet “24UR” said the deal was all but finalized and said that the deal would be for $1.7 million USD with the potential of $350,000 in incentives. They also said that Stojinović would sign a 3-year deal with an option for an additional year.

Finally, I heard from sources on 1/29/26 about the latest update on Stojinović.

Also, Tom Bogert confirmed the latest update.

The deal seems all but done and though the news came on fast, fans should be excited that the club was able to bolster their back line.

Background

Dušan Stojinović was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia–the capital of Slovenia–on August 26, 2000. When he was a kid, he joined NK Bravo, a professional football club in the Slovenian PrvaLiga. Over time he worked his way up through the academy and eventually made his senior team debut on October 14, 2017. Shortly after his senior debut, he joined NK Celje, another club in Slovenia, where he could get playing time but he also wanted to join a club that had been around for a longer time. He ended up staying with the club from 2017 through 2021 and helped them win their first national championship title in the 2019-2020 season. He also scored his first professional goal in that time span, really honing his game.

Courtesy of footballdatabase.eu

During the 2021 season, he was loaned to Russian club Khimki to get some more playing time and a bigger challenge but his loan was terminated early as Celje needed him back to help bolster the squad. While he was at Khimki, he was able to get 16 appearances for the Russian club.

At the end of the 2022-2023 season, Stojinović’s contract ran out and he decided to take on a new challenge in a new league and made the move to Jagiellonia Białystok, a club in the top flight of Polish football in the league Ekstraklasa. He initially signed a two-year contract which ran through 2025 and a year later signed an extension through June, 2027.

Stojinović also has a large international career with Slovenia, starting back with the U16 team in 2015. He has played 16 games in total from the U16 level all the way through the U21 level. During his time with the U21 team, he had some crossover with Orlando City center back David Brekalo.

Courtesy of Transfermarkt and Imago

Stats/Skill Set

After going through his background, we can talk about his stats and break down his play. Finding video on Dušan will be difficult since the leagues he plays in are hard to watch in the United States but I will do my best to find media to show everyone.

We’ll start with the position he plays, which at this point should be pretty obvious. Stojinović is a center back; there’s no doubt about that, but he also has some time at right back and a bit of left back. He has also played both right center back and left center back but mostly has played right center back. Stojinović is 6′ 2″ and at that height, a pretty solid build all around. He knows how to get up and win the ball when the ball is played in. He possesses a decent amount of strength and can slide tackle well when clearing the ball away. He possesses the ball well and can drive the ball forward, which helps spark the counterattack when the ball turns over. Here’s a quick highlight video from a few years ago that shows off his skills a bit better.

Stats

I usually would use FBref for my stats but since they lost access to many of their stats, I will be forced to use a variety of sources to get numbers on Stojinović. I plan to use FotMob, Sofascore, Wyscout, and the few stats that FBref still has. This should still give us a pretty good picture of his play. Below is the overall Wyscout profile that I like to start off with, to give fans a general idea about a player.

Defense

Since he’s a center back, it’s probably best we spend the first section talking about his defensive stats. We’ll start with the basic stats first and then dive a bit deeper. Tackling is a pretty solid stat for Dušan, something one would expect for a center back. He rates in the 69th percentile in total tackles while also ranking in the 64th percentile in “tackles won” and 56th percentile in “dribblers tackled”. These are the bare minimum stats you’d expect for a center back of a decent caliber. He makes the tackles he is supposed to make, wins those tackles, and stops dribblers in their tracks. His “percent of dribblers tackled” is a bit low, 32nd percentile, but that’s a number that varies from season to season. He’s also slightly below average in “challenges lost” hovering around the 42nd percentile. You’d like to see that number a bit higher and with fine-tuning, it could be.

The second group of defensive stats are a bit more in-depth so this should help us understand his game a bit better. For the “block” category, Stojinović is mostly above average. For “total blocks” he ranks in the 56th percentile and for “passes blocks” he ranks in the 62nd percentile. Both being slightly above average is a good sign. For “shots blocked” he is well below average ranking in the 32nd percentile. I would say this isn’t the biggest deal breaker, depending on how his former team played, but is a bit concerning. For “interceptions” he jumps back up above the average line to the 61st percentile, which anything above average in interceptions for a center back is great. “Tackles + interceptions” has him slightly above average, ranking in the 54th percentile. The best stat in this block by far are his “clearance” numbers. Stojinović ranks well above average in this category, 72nd percentile–a vitally important stat next to recoveries, for a center back. We’ll talk recoveries a bit later on. For “errors” and “aerials won” he is slightly above average for those, with “errors” in the 62nd percentile and “aerials won” in the 54th percentile. All in all, a solid defensive stats resume which really boil down what you can see on tape.

Possession

Next, we’ll move on to possession since Dušan has some interesting stats in this category. Just like with defense, I split up possession in two different sections to help share the stats a bit easier. For the first section, we’ll talk about touches. For “total touches” he ranks in the 86th percentile, well above average, hovering in the elite category. This tells me he’s a center back a team wants to play through when building out of the back-which bodes well for Orlando City. The other stat for touches I wanted to hit on were “touches in the opponents’ box” where he ranks in the 41st percentile. I felt that mentioning he’s just below average tells us he isn’t winning the ball much on set pieces in the opponents box, which may disappoint some fans. Let’s move our attention to “take-ons”, a unique category for a center back but an interesting one to look at nonetheless. For “take-ons attempted”, he ranks just above average in the 52nd percentile. Now in terms of success, he ranks in the 48th percentile in pure number of “successful take-ons” and ranks in the 100th percentiles in “successful take-on percentage”. The first number is about average so not much to comment on there but ranking in the 100th percentile for “successful take-on percentage” amongst center backs is a very elite number. It may not be the most sustainable number but the fact that he has that skill is a big win. Finally, he has a well above average “tackled during take-on percentage” ranking in the 74th percentile. A center back who can take on his opponent is a rare thing to have.

Let’s look at carries and some miscellaneous possession stats. We’ll start with carries and a reminder that a carry is when a player moves the ball 10 yards towards their opponents’ net. Center backs tend not to move the ball that far before passing, switching, or passing it long. For Stojinović, he ranks in the 64th percentile in “total carries”, 71st percentile in “progressive carry distance”, and the 81st percentile in “progressive carries”. All of those stats are not only well above average but display a great level of possession from the young Slovenian. That partnered with his take-ons makes for a nice ball-playing center back. If we examine the stats such as “carries into the final third” and “carries in the penalty area”, he ranks well below average but that shouldn’t surprise fans that a center back rates that low vs. other defenders. The two error stats are interesting for Stojinović, as both don’t paint him that well. For “miscontrols” he ranks in the 37th percentile and for “dispossessed” he ranks in the 24th percentile. Even though he has good take-on numbers and carries, he finds ways to cough up the ball which isn’t encouraging. I’d imagine that number would go down if he decreased his carry distance and didn’t attempt as many take-ons. But if your team is successful, you may be willing to let him continue his progression instead of changing his game. Lastly, for “recoveries” he ranks well above average in the 79th percentile. This number is very encouraging and exactly what you want to see from your defenders.

Passing

I’d like to look at passing next since many fans would love a center back who can distribute the ball well. We’ve been fortunate to have a few center backs in our recent history that can move the ball. For “total passes completed”, Dušan ranks in the 93rd percentile, an elite number amongst defenders. His passing stats get even better, as his “passing completion percentage” ranks in the 88th percentile and his “long pass completion percentage” ranks in the 85th percentile. These are excellent numbers for passing, especially at his position. This is the type of ball playing center back people hope for, when looking for that type of center back. For “switches”, he’s also a degree above average ranking in the 63rd percentile. “Assists” are also good for Stojinović as he ranks out in the 74th percentile and alongside those assists, he rates in the 84th percentile in “progressive passes”. With those two stats combined, you have a center back who can move the ball well. The last stat “key passes” comes in slightly below average ranking in the 45th percentile.

Shooting and Discipline

Finally, we’ll briefly talk about shooting and some miscellaneous stats that don’t really belong in any category. I won’t touch on every stat for Dušan in this section since some of the stats are so low or don’t really relate to his play on the field. For “shot total” (64th percentile), “shots on target percentage” (56th percentile), and “goals per shot on target” (66th percentile), we see that Stojinović ranks slightly above average. He also has an “expected goals” ranking in the 73rd percentile but xG is a controversial stat amongst fans and in this case, doesn’t give us much seeing as he didn’t score last season.

Last but not least, let’s talk about discipline since that has affected Orlando City defenders the last couple of years. We’ll start with cards, which are a mixed bag for him. “Yellow cards” he ranks in the 16th percentile but ranks in the 100th percentile for “red cards”. You have to love the red card stat but the yellow card one is concerning.  He did only pick up 3 yellow cards last season, so in MLS he wouldn’t have even been suspended, so it could be a league that just doesn’t issue a lot of yellow cards. With “fouls committed”, he ranks just above average at the 51st percentile and for “fouls drawn” he ranks in the 61st percentile. Both of those are decent rankings, though you may want to see a bit better of a fouls committed ranking.

Comparisons to Current Orlando City Center Backs

So now that we understand Dušan Stojinović’s individual stats, we can compare him to the current Orlando City center backs. For this exercise, I chose Robin Jansson and David Brekalo. I chose Jansson for obvious reasons, he’s currently our best center back and captain which should provide a nice comparison. I chose Brekalo because of his versatility and I personally wanted to see how he compared to his fellow countrymen. We’ll start with defending first since that would be the most important category for these players.

Defending-Comparison

We’ll start with tackles like we did in the individual section. Both Stojinović and Jansson are pretty close in this category, with Stojinović having a slight edge in all the categories. Brekalo takes the cake in every metric but that could be due to his extensive time at left back this past season, though they are nice stats to look at. “Challenges lost” is a stat that most of the guys would like to forget.

With the second defensive stats category, it’s a bit more of a mixed bag. Brekalo and Jansson are much better with many of the blocking stats, especially “total blocks” and “shots blocked”. For “passes blocked”, Stojinović comes back a bit. “Interceptions” and “tackles + interceptions”, Brekalo outperforms both but Stojinović is right on pace with Jansson. Stojinović does win one stat in this category where his rank of “clearances” outpasses his peers. While “errors” are all pretty close for the three, Brekalo is far above his peers when it comes to “aerials won”.

Defending Conclusions: Stojinović being right on pace with Jansson in a lot of these should be a really good sign for Orlando City fans. Even though Jansson had a bit of a down season, compared to the year prior, he still had a decent/good season. If Stojinović can translate those skills for defending, we would have a good defender.

Possession-Comparison

Let’s take a look at possession next, since Stojinović’s stats in this area stood out. The first section covers touches and take-ons. In this subcategory, Stojinović is pretty close to where Brekalo performs. “Successful take on percentage”, “tackled during take-on percentage”, and “total touches” are all well on pace with Brekalo for the first two and all three are similar on “total touches”. Brekalo does lead in “touches in the opponents area” and “successful take-ons” but that makes sense since he played more outside than inside last season. They are all pretty close on “take-ons attempted” as well which is a good sign for all three.

For the second set of possession stats, things lean a bit more in Stojinović’s favor. He’s on pace with Brekalo in “total carries” but passes both Jansson and Brekalo in “progressive carries” and “progressive carrying distance”. That is great news as it seems like Stojinović likes to and can, progress the ball further up the field than Orlando’s current center backs. The other stat that Stojinović edges out his peers are his ball recoveries, where he just beats out Jansson and solidly beats out Brekalo. All three do struggle with “miscontrols” and a bit with “dispossessions”.

Possession Conclusions: Stojinović stands out a bit more in this section compared to defending. He clearly has a knack for not only getting on the ball but taking people on and progressing the ball up the field. He clearly has an edge in progressive carries and take-ons, something that could add a nice skill to the center back room.

Passing-Comparison

For the passing category, Stojinović is well on pace with Brekalo and even beats him out on a few. “Total passes completed”, “passing completion percentage”, and “long pass completion percentage” Brekalo and Stojinović are at the elite level. As people may remember from seasons prior, Brekalo has always had great distribution so to have another center back who has that ability makes the team even better on that front. Stojinović is on par with Jansson for “switches”, where both players are above average and beats out all three players on “assists”. “Progressive passes” are a similar story with Brekalo just behind Stojinović in that category but both are well above average.

Passing Conclusions: Stojinović finds a way to stand above the crowd in this category as well and that should be great news for fans. He can not only possess the ball but can distribute it when it’s time to and that exactly what the club wants to have. The combination of those two categories bodes well for a quality center back.

Discipline-Comparison

Finally, we’ll talk about discipline, which should be a pretty simple conversation as all three are pretty identical in this category. For “yellow cards”, they all are well below average so Stojinović isn’t going to assist with making those numbers better. Though if we look at “red cards”, “fouls committed”, and “fouls drawn”, all three align in the same level, with “fouls committed” being a bit more spread out. In that category, Brekalo ranks out a fair amount higher with Jansson behind him and Stojinović at the bottom.

Conclusion: Is he a fit for Orlando City and where does he fit?

Dušan Stojinović was a rumor that popped up out of nowhere and may have been a rumor that fans weren’t expecting but it’s a good rumor for a few reasons. The first reason is it helps cover a position of need for the team. As the team went into the preseason, they only had two center backs signed to the roster (technically they still only have two signed center backs on the team). The team needs depth in the center back corps and they need it badly. Thankfully, there is also the rumor that Iago from Flamengo is coming and the club does have two college draft picks that have been with the squad. So one way or another, they will get depth. The second reason this rumor is good is the type of center back they are looking at to fill out the squad. Stojinović is more a “Brekalo type” than a “Jansson type” when it comes to possession, passing, and ball handling. He also has similar level of skills defending as Jansson has, so really he’s a combo between Jansson and Brekalo that leans toward Brekalo. Third, he comes in almost ten years younger than Jansson, has the hunger to keep improving, and has a kinship with Brekalo before he comes in. All those combinations of things are beneficial for a new center backs.

I don’t necessarily expect him to walk in and take one of the center back spots right away. At this point, he won’t have a ton of time with the team before the season starts considering the visa process has been taking longer than usual. However, he will provide much-needed depth from the jump which you need. He’ll also be able to cover the right back position, which is also looking really thin after the Alex Freeman departure. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like Orlando needs him to fill in right away which is a nice thing for him and because he has been out of season for a few weeks now. All in all, he’s a solid signing that will get better with age. How he ages will be key to the future success of the Orlando City center back room.

 

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