Chelseas Jelena Cankovic: From bombs in Belgrade to Barcelona and becoming a WSL champion

June 30, 2024

“When I was four years old, there was some bombing; I remember a siren going off and not being able to play and being annoyed about that.”

These are some of the experiences Chelsea midfielder Jelena Cankovic has faced, long before she was playing in the Women’s Super League, or for Serbia, or before she became a child star.

Despite growing up in a country experiencing political unrest and facing heavy sanctions as a result of war, the now 27-year-old was unaware of a lot of the harsh realities at that time in Batajnica, just outside the capital Belgrade, and her memories have numbed over the years.

“There were a lot of things happening in the country,” Cankovic says from her house in Cobham, near Chelsea’s training ground south of London. “Probably for my parents and people their age, it wasn’t the nicest period. I had a really nice childhood and my parents did so much for me.”

From the age of two, Cankovic played constantly with neighbours and her father, Zeljko, a football obsessive who coached and played. She had natural talent which Zeljko quickly spotted and encouraged, and it was not long before she was able to juggle the ball on her feet with ease.

Cankovic found childhood fame after entering a televised football-juggling competition (Photo: instagram.com/iampetemartin)

Cankovic practised her juggling endlessly and it soon became more than just a fun way to pass the time. Cankovic recalls watching TV at home at the age of six and spotting an advert for a football-juggling competition. She begged her parents to allow her to enter. The advert ran on TV for months and Cankovic continued to hassle her parents before they relented.

She was the only girl and, by far, the youngest entrant but she juggled the ball 50 times to leave the crowd stunned. Her skills drew national interest and Cankovic started to appear as the half-time entertainment at sporting events, including for a game in the Serbian top flight. She was a regular in the local news — the child star who could do an incredible amount of keepy-uppies. Her parents still have the newspaper clippings and recordings.

But Cankovic, tired of being the “clown”, wanted to take football more seriously. Under her father’s guidance, she joined the boys’ team at FK Perspektiva. The suburbs of Belgrade are a hotbed of talent. Cankovic recalls playing against Serbia and Fulham men’s stars Aleksandar Mitrovic and Sasa Lukic as a youngster and her cousin is Bayern Munich forward Jovana Damnjanovic.

Like many players of her generation, Cankovic faced hurtful comments from other children’s parents, who took issue with her playing with boys — usually due to her far superior talent — but she became hardened to it.

She was called up to play for Serbia Under-17s at the age of 14 and made her debut for the senior side when she was 18. Cankovic knew the next challenge would be moving abroad to play her club football.

Cankovic, left, has 33 appearances and five goals for Serbia (Photo: Srdjan Stevanovic/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Cankovic stayed with her local team until she was 15 but they did not have a women’s side, and she had set her sights on playing professionally. She moved away from home and joined Spartak Subotica, about 120 miles from Belgrade. It was a shock to the system for Cankovic — living alone in a new town at just 15 and balancing full-time football with her schoolwork.

“My parents were preparing for (me to move away) when I was young,” she says. “In Serbia, there’s nothing. I knew I wanted to play and I needed to go abroad. It’s not any different to men’s footballers in Serbia, so I had to grow up fast.”

At 18, Cankovic signed for Barcelona, but it was not the dream move she had envisioned. The language barrier in Spain isolated her and she quickly felt homesick.

“I’m not the most extroverted person,” she says. “It was also just so hard to come into the country and not speak the language — I don’t like to speak the language until I can speak it perfectly.

(Photo: https://www.instagram.com/iampetemartin/)

“Taking care of myself in another country — it was definitely a big learning point. I’m super-happy I went through it because it helped me so much later.”

Cankovic planned to stay in Spain for more than a year but had to cut her time short. “I didn’t want to stay longer after my half a year because I was struggling mentally. I just wanted to go back home and be with my family. I said when I was 17, ‘I’m leaving (home) and I’m not coming back’, but you just don’t know what’s going to happen.

“Barcelona was my dream club, so when that opportunity came to me I was like, ‘Nothing else exists in this world’. I don’t regret anything because I fulfilled my dream.”

Cankovic returned home, hit the reset button and prepared to head abroad once more to find rhythm and stability again. She joined Hungarian side Ferencvaros in 2015 before heading to Sweden, signing for Vaxjo in the top tier Damallsvenskan in 2017.

After another two years she made her next move, another step up, heading to Rosengard — the 13-time Swedish league winners and Women’s Champions League mainstays. That transfer elevated Cankovic’s game to a new level. In the 2021 season, she scored eight goals in 18 appearances and helped Rosengard reach the Champions League quarter-finals. Those performances put her on Chelsea’s radar, and she joined Emma Hayes’ west Londoners last summer.

Cankovic, left, made 62 appearances for Rosengard from 2019-22 (Photo: Johan Nilsson3/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

It was a slow start for the midfielder at Chelsea, though. She had to be patient to get her first minutes due to a knee injury sustained at the start of last season. After she reached full fitness, she has grown into her role either as a No 10 or No 8.

Cankovic’s performances grew as the season went on — she scored four goals and got two assists as Hayes’ side won a fourth Women’s Super League (WSL) title on the trot and a third successive domestic double.

“It always takes time to adjust to the team, to new team-mates, get to know where they want the ball, how everyone plays and it’s all the small things that take time,” Cankovic says. “Next season will be much easier.”

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Cankovic has big ambitions for the next few years and top of the list is to win the Champions League, but she knows it’s not only about the trophies: “The thing with goals is you can set them but if you don’t meet them exactly that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s unsuccessful. I just set the goal to just make sure I play the best I can and to do everything I can to just be the best version of myself.”

Cankovic has four goals in 14 appearances since joining Chelsea last summer (Photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Another big dream: to reach a major tournament with Serbia for the first time.

Cankovic believes her national side should be aiming to qualify for the next European Championship in 2026 but the resources have not been forthcoming from the Serbian federation — both their men’s and women’s teams have demanded more.

This summer, Cankovic will be watching as 14 of her Chelsea team-mates represent their countries in Australia and New Zealand at the Women’s World Cup, which kicks off on July 20.

It feels like there is still so much to come for this composed and confident midfielder — maybe next season will be when we see the best of what Cankovic can offer.

(Photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

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