Bournemouth's Milos Kerkez: 'Everything has changed quickly. It's a little crazy' | Bournemouth

TO A wide smile spreads across Milos Kerkez's boyish face as he watches a video of himself doing what he probably does best: risking his body for the cause, in this case his former club, AZ Alkmaar. It was May last year, in the midst of a 3-0 Eredivisie win in Nijmegen, when the ball went flying after he executed an expert sliding tackle on the touchline. Having fallen to the ground, Kerkez was surely at a disadvantage to beat Anthony Musaba.

“My teammate Tijjani Reijnders said: 'No, no!' I was like, 'I have to do something,'” he says. Bournemouth advocate. Then Kerkez, with his back turned, runs towards the ball, throwing his body at it, spinning in the air like a commando, to block and retain possession. “I wanted to hit him with my head but he came off my back. I mean, it's still a good entry, right?

It is, he says, an innate instinct. That passion became clear when he played in the streets of Vrbas, the Serbian city where he grew up, 30 miles north of Novi Sad, as a child with his older brothers, Rade and Marko, who plays for Partizan Belgrade. These were not jumpers, but stone blocks as poles. “My brothers were hard on me. I would be knocked down, I would fall, my skin would be cut and bleed. I realized, 'I like doing this.' The cars couldn't drive on the road because otherwise our ball would hit them and they had to turn around… now we are playing soccer. Barricade,” he says smiling. “They were good times.”

These are also exciting days for Hungarian international Kerkez, an athletic force in one of the Premier League's most absorbing teams, a self-proclaimed “crazy left-back”. According to Bournemouth data, their average distance traveled of 107 km per game is surpassed only by Brentford in the division. Andoni Iraola's team never know when they are defeated, as demonstrated by their extraordinary comeback against Everton in August. and in Ipswich the last timeboth games were losing at minute 86.

“We have a team with a profile of players who can run at maximum intensity throughout the game… it is difficult to play against us. You can feel it in a game, when you put pressure on the other team: 'Ah, this is difficult.' They can't reach an agreement. It's difficult but you have moments to recover, throw-ins, free kicks… sometimes we need a minute or two to calm down a bit. Then we can continue for 30 minutes.”

It's no surprise, then, that Kerkez values ​​the importance of unplugging. “In the summer, when I go (to Serbia) on vacation, I only go for three or four days, I will be alone in a house, maybe with a friend, I will relax there, chop wood, make a fire, camp, fish, that's it. everything, without phone. “People want you to focus on football, but you need something else because when you do that, when you come back you are even more motivated, with more energy to do more on the field.” Where is your favorite place to fish? “They're not on the Internet… I'm not going to reveal my location,” he smiles.

During international breaks, Erling Haaland sometimes returns to his roots to recharge; the striker previously posted updates from Norway, fishing rod in hand. “He obviously has that Viking mentality, so you know how things are, he likes being in nature. That's what I like too, being outside, going to the forest and staying there for a week… Sometimes I've done it; Putting the fish I have caught on the fire, frying them, cleaning them, eating them that same night… is what I like to do.”

Kerkez, who is learning to drive, his theory test at the end of the month, may have recently turned 21, but he has big plans. He wants to give back to his family, especially his mother, Tiijana, and father, Sebastijan, who sometimes had to follow his progress from afar. Kerkez, 18, spent eight months in Hungary, his father in Germany working in a chemical factory, where Rade also worked, and his mother had three jobs in the care sector. “It was a little difficult growing up,” he says. Former Ipswich and Watford striker Tamas Priskin helped him settle into Győr – the pair met on Portman Road last weekend – before he secured an eye-catching move to Milan, sealed hours after a video call from Paolo Maldini.

Given his energy levels, it's no surprise to learn that Kerkez enjoyed parkour and climbing trees as a child. “My age is increasing, but I am always the same,” he laughs. He also spent a lot of time on his father's farm, collecting chicken eggs, surrounded by birds and bulls. “He loves spending all day on the farm, with the dogs, the ducks, the fish and in nature. I'm going to build him a new one, I hope it's soon. A bigger one, with more animals. I want horses, cows, dogs, everything. I want to have a big space, so that when I go there I can disconnect from football. I want to build a lake, fill it with fish so I can fish all day. “It’s my dad’s idea but we have to make a plan now.”

Now Kerkez, who learned German after living in Austria for five years while playing in the youth ranks of Rapid Vienna, has started again. His English is impeccable and he also speaks Hungarian and some Italian. “Everything has changed quickly. It's a little crazy. Everything was: 'Boom'. “I knew I could do it… but I didn’t know I could do it that fast.”

He scored his first goal at Bournemouth against the wolves last month. “It was a great team move – did you see how many passes we made earlier? I just felt like I had to finish it. In my head it was: 'Crush him hard.' I was worried it was going to go to the center (of the goal), but it went into the top corner. Really nice.”

He lives with his parents in Lilliput, near Poole, and is slowly taking advantage of his six-month-old Rottweiler, Maximus, who eats raw meat and could weigh up to 85kg. “He's going to be a big boy. I want to teach him that he can't do anything until I tell him… that's my other dog,” referring to Had, his Italian Mastiff. “After Hades, the god of the underworld,” he says. “I miss my Cane Corso because I took him to Milan, to Amsterdam but now he is in Serbia.”

The conversation with Kerkez is like Bournemouth, fluid and fun; Reviewing YouTube clips of Roberto Carlos in his teens, making his Hungarian debut at 18 and forging a close friendship with Dominik Szoboszlai, visiting Grade 92, the barbershop owned by his Bournemouth team-mates Adam Smith and Lewis Cook, his love for his mother's cooking (the Serbian delicacies cevapi, grilled minced meat, or kajmak, a creamy dairy dish, are delights calories) and grabs the megaphone after Alkmaar qualified for the round of 16 of the Europa Conference League. “'Okay, now I have to sing and say something.' When you give it your all, the fans love you back.”

Kerkez is known for his fast-paced runs towards the opposition's backline, but he prides himself on his art of defending. “Maybe people see how much I advance and forget about my defense, but the first thing I do well is defend, one on one, in duels. Anything extra is a bonus, because I have the energy to do it, so why not? The best thing for us as defenders is to block the wingers.” When asked if any battle had been particularly satisfying, Kerkez's response speaks volumes about his character. “I don't care who's there. “I just do my job.”

Rade, his older brother, is possibly his biggest fan and often plays as Bournemouth when he and Milos face off in the video game FIFA. “He waits every week for my game; That is the best day of the week for him, when my game arrives. He says, 'I don't know what to do when you don't play every three days.'” Kerkez has turned Vojvodina, the Serbian region where he comes from, into Cherries. “The whole place is in Bournemouth kits. Everyone asks for t-shirts. “Every time I come back I see younger children using phones and staying indoors playing video games.

“It makes me a little sad because 10 years ago it wasn't like that. We were just waiting to go out and play soccer. My mom always called me at home. 'Come back, come back'. When I come back and give the kids boots, I give them back a little bit of that fire to play football. I want to help them because it is sad to see the new generations always looking at screens. I am talking to my father about the possibility of building a training center, an indoor field in my city, for the children of the region; bring a couple of trainers. “I want to help them get on the path to sports.”

Bournemouth are looking to eclipse last season's 48 points, their best figure in the top flight. They host West Ham on Monday looking for a fourth straight win that would extend their good form at home. Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham are gone Dorset has come up empty-handed in recent months, although no one is getting carried away. “We are pushing, but we are not even halfway through the season and in the Premier League everything can change in two games,” says Kerkez. As for your ultimate goal? “I think I can reach the highest level of football… and then I can build an even bigger lake,” he says.