Nikola Tavares
Personal information
Full name Nikola Hrvatsko Tavares[1]
Date of birth (1999-01-17) 17 January 1999
Place of birth Cape Town, South Africa[2]
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)[2]
Position(s) Central defender
Team information
Current team
 Dagenham & Redbridge
Number 4
Youth career
Table View
AOB
Old Mutual Academy
0000–2013 Hellenic
2013–2016 Brentford
2016–2019 Crystal Palace
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2019–2021 Crystal Palace 0 (0)
2021–2022 Wealdstone 27 (1)
2022– Dagenham & Redbridge 22 (0)
International career
2017 Croatia U18 2 (0)
2017 Croatia U19 1 (0)
2018–2019 Croatia U20 3 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 21:58, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Nikola Hrvatsko Tavares (born 17 January 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as a central defender for National League club Dagenham & Redbridge.

Tavares is a product of the Crystal Palace and Brentford academies and began his senior career in non-League football with Wealdstone in 2021. He transferred to Dagenham & Redbridge in 2022. Born in South Africa, Tavares was capped by Croatia at youth level.

Club career

Youth years

A central defender, Tavares began his career in youth football in Cape Town,[3][4] before moving into the academy at English club Brentford.[5] He was a part of the U15 team which won the Junior Globe at the 2014 Milk Cup and he progressed to sign a scholarship deal in 2015.[6][7] The Brentford academy was closed at the end of the 2015–16 season and Tavares trialled unsuccessfully with the U18 teams at Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion during the early months of the 2016–17 season.[8] His Brentford registration was cancelled in February 2017.[1]

Crystal Palace

Tavares joined the academy at Premier League club Crystal Palace in late 2016 and by February 2017 he had progressed to sign a professional contract to be a part of the Eagles' U23 team.[5] In what remained of the 2016–17 season, he made 19 U23 and U18 appearances.[9] Despite suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury,[10] he signed a new contract at the end of the 2017–18 season.[11] He progressed to captain the U23 team during the 2018–19 season and was an unused substitute during the first team's final match of the campaign.[12][13] Tavares signed a new one-year contract in July 2019 and was an unused substitute on four occasions during the 2019–20 season,[13][14] before suffering a quadriceps injury late in the campaign.[15] Entering the 2020–21 season injured and out of contract, Tavares signed one-month rolling contracts in order to remain at Selhurst Park during his rehabilitation.[15] He was released in early 2021.[15]

Wealdstone

On 29 March 2021, Tavares joined National League club Wealdstone on a contract running until the end of the 2020–21 season.[15][16] He made his debut in a league match versus Solihull Moors the following day and suffered a season-ending thigh injury 62 minutes into the 3–0 defeat.[13][15] Tavares signed a new contract in July 2021 and made 27 appearances,[17] scoring one goal,[13] during a mid-table 2021–22 season.[18] He turned down a new contract and departed Grosvenor Vale in June 2022.[19]

Dagenham & Redbridge

On 10 June 2022, Tavares signed a two-year contract with National League club Dagenham & Redbridge for a compensation fee.[20] The transfer made him a full-time player.[19] After making six appearances during the opening month of the 2022–23 season,[13] Tavares suffered a season-ending injury.[21] He returned to match play in July 2023.[22]

International career

Tavares won six caps for Croatia between U18 and U20 level.[23] Passport issues prevented Tavares from being included in the South Africa U23 squad for two 2019 Africa U23 Cup of Nations qualifiers versus Angola in March 2019.[24] He was named as "passport pending player" for South Africa's 2019 Africa Cup of Nations squad,[25] but was not named in the final selection.[26] In February 2020, Tavares was named in South Africa's preliminary squad for the 2020 Olympic Games.[27]

Personal life

Tavares was born in South Africa to a Portuguese father and a Croatian mother.[8][28] His brother Marco is also a footballer.[8][29]

Career statistics

As of match played 1 January 2024
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup EFL Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals Apps GoalsAppsGoals
Crystal Palace 2018–19[30] Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 ― 0 0
2019–20[31] Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 ― 0 0
Total 0 0 0 0 0 0 ― 0 0
Wealdstone 2020–21[13] National League 1 0 ― ― ― 1 0
2021–22[13] National League 26 1 1 0 ― 0 0 27 1
Total 27 1 1 0 ― 0 0 28 1
Dagenham & Redbridge 2022–23[13] National League 6 0 0 0 ― 0 0 6 0
2023–24[13] National League 16000―1[lower-alpha 1]0170
Total 22000―10230
Career total 491100010511
  1. ↑ Appearance(s) in FA Trophy

References

  1. 1 2 "List of Players under Written Contract Whose Registrations have been Cancelled by Mutual Consent Between 01/02/2017 and 28/02/2017". The Football Association. p. 8. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 Nikola Tavares at WorldFootball.net
  3. ↑ "The journey: Nikola Tavares". FarPost. 9 April 2020. Archived from the original on 17 June 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  4. ↑ "Ready to roll with the Stones – Getting to know Wealdstone's Nikola Tavares". Non League Daily. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Kirby and Tavares Sign Development Deals". Crystal Palace FC. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  6. ↑ "Milk Cup: Brentford U15s 4 Southampton U15s 0". Brentford FC. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  7. ↑ "Brentford offer 12 Academy scholarships for 2015/16". Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 "South African-born youngster joins Crystal Palace". Goal.com. 11 February 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  9. ↑ "Nikola Tavares – Defender – Under-23 Team". Crystal Palace FC. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "U23s' Nikola Tavares On Returning From Injury With Scott Dann". Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  11. ↑ "Nikola Tavares Has Signed A New Contract With Crystal Palace". www.soccerladuma.co.za. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  12. ↑ "Nikola Tavares – We Improved A Lot This Game". www.cpfc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Nikola Tavares at Soccerway. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  14. ↑ "Pair of Palace Development players sign new contracts". www.cpfc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Fifield, Dominic. "Nikola Tavares on 'special' Anfield experience, release from Palace and struggles of finding a new club in a pandemic". The Athletic. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  16. ↑ Woods, Chris (29 March 2021). "Stones sign Tavares". Wealdstone FC. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  17. ↑ "Triple signing at the Stones". Wealdstone FC. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  18. ↑ Wealdstone F.C. at the Football Club History Database
  19. 1 2 Woods, Chris (20 June 2022). "Player News | Tavares departs Stones". Wealdstone FC. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  20. ↑ "Nikola Tavares Signs For Daggers!". Dagenham & Redbridge FC. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  21. ↑ "Confident Dagenham & Redbridge aware of Woking strengths says McMahon". East London Advertiser. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  22. ↑ "Tavares: There is just a good spirit, and everyone gets along really well". Dagenham & Redbridge FC. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  23. ↑ "Nikola Tavares". Hrvatski nogometni savez (in Croatian). Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  24. ↑ Mothowagae, Daniel (19 March 2019). "Life goes on as usual for Notoane's team despite Tavares' passport glitch". CityPress. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  25. ↑ "Bafana Bafana squads for Afcon 2019 and Cosafa tournaments announced". Goal.com. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  26. ↑ "Baxter names final 23-man squad". SAFA. 9 June 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  27. ↑ "Bafana stars included in preliminary U23 squad for Tokyo Olympics". Sport. 19 February 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  28. ↑ "Hrvatski reprezentativac U-18 potpisao za Crystal Palace!". Germanijak. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  29. ↑ "Marco Tavares | Soccer Scholarships". ASM Scholarships. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  30. ↑ "Games played by Nikola Tavares in 2018/2019". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  31. ↑ "Games played by Nikola Tavares in 2019/2020". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.