‘I wasn’t happy and planned my escape from Gareth Southgate’s Middlesbrough. I ignored my club’s calls because I was angry they’d sent me there. I went to Chelsea instead’ Nemanja Matic on his trial with Boro

Over the course of the past two decades, Nemanja Matic’s career has taken plenty of twists and turns.

The 37-year-old is currently plying his trade for Serie A side Sassuolo, the tenth different team of his storied career, which has seen him play in seven different countries and pull on the Serbian national team short 48 times.

Matic’s first major move saw him join Chelsea from Slovakian side Kosice in August 2009, but the £1.5million was not as straightforward as it sounds.

Matic on his aborted Boro trial

“I signed for Chelsea after the Under-21 Euros, when I’d broken my foot against Italy in the only game that I played,” Matic recalls to FourFourTwo. “I was lucky that Carlo Ancelotti had seen the game and signed me for Chelsea.

“Six months before that, my club had sent me to Middlesbrough. It was interesting – they told me I needed to go on trial for 10 days, but I didn’t want to go out on trial anywhere, I was a top-division player in Slovakia.

“They were pushing me. I said no. But they told me to just go there for three days, see the club, Middlesbrough would explain everything, and if I was happy, they’d give me a contract and I’d play in the Premier League. Gareth Southgate was the manager.

“I went but I didn’t speak English, apart from the word ‘taxi’. I went to the training ground, got a full kit and was put in a dressing room with one other guy.

“I wasn’t happy, then I saw the pitch – what a pitch! So I trained for two days. They asked me to stay for 10 days, but I didn’t want that and called a Serbian lady to help me plan my escape.

“I took a taxi to Manchester Airport and went back home. I ignored my club’s calls because I was angry that they’d sent me on trial.

“I went to Chelsea instead.”

The 21-year-old Matic would sign a four-year deal with the Blues and after making just three appearances in his first campaign, spent the 2010/11 season on loan at Vitesse, before he was sold to Benfica, as part of the deal that saw David Luiz arrive at Stamford Bridge.

Matic would return to Chelsea three years later when he rejoined the side in a £21million move, with his next move reuniting him with his former Blues boss Jose Mourinho at Manchester United in 2017 in a £40million deal between the two clubs.

After a five-year stay at Old Trafford, Matic spent time in Italy and France before he joined newly promoted Sassuolo in the summer, as a career full of twists and turns continues to this day.