Another player previously rumored to be arriving at Austin FC was finally announced on Tuesday morning.
Besard Šabović, a North Macedonian-born Swedish midfielder, most recently with Djurgårdens IF of Sweden’s top-flight Allsvenskan, has signed a three-year deal through 2027 with an option year in 2028. As soon as his immigration paperwork is processed, he’ll join Verde as the 18th player on the senior roster.
Assuming that Myrto Uzuni will be announced soon as the team’s 19th player and third designated player, as also rumored, sporting director Rodolfo Borrell will have one more senior roster spot to fill to hit the maximum of 20 (though, per MLS roster rules, Šabović as the 18th player is the last one needed for Austin FC to hit roster compliance for 2025.)
We don’t have much ocular knowledge of Šabović as a result of him playing in a league that doesn’t make it to American TVs, though he has played in UEFA’s Conference League this season — that’s a competition that’s a rung below Europa League, which is a rung below Champions League. This season, it’s most notable for having Chelsea in it, currently the No. 1 seed following six group play games, with Vitória de Guimarães, Fiorentina, and Rapid Wien, but then Djurgårdens is right there in fifth.
In fact, we have numbers from his Conference League appearances that got into FBref charts, but we don’t have much else. We learned from the press release that “in two separate stints with Djurgårdens (2015-2019 and 2022-2024), Sabovic totaled 10 goals in 107 appearances,” 21 of those in Conference League matches over the years.
There’s also a scout on The Social Media Site I Will Not Name who shared a heat map showing him to be a true box-to-box midfielder, as well as data from the Swedish league showing him strongest in a goals-to-shots on target category and in progressive passes, which is reassuring.
What I’m gathering from all the evidence is Šabović is an 8, able to do a little bit of everything in midfield. He’s not quite the 10 that Austin FC theoretically still needs in order to best activate its front line players, but it’s looking more and more like Austin could operate with two wingers, a lone 6 and a lone 8 in a 4-4-2 formation, or could break out a 4-3-3 with dual number 8s and a 6 behind a front three.
Let’s say it with pictures.
