Sasa Lukic interview: Fulham will qualify for Europe – and next year we'll be even better | OneFootball

The Fulham midfielder gives his first interview in English - and insists the Cottagers can grab the final spot with a strong run-in

Sasa Lukic leans over the table at Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground and explains this is the first interview he has ever given in English. It comes as little surprise that he then takes to the challenge as confidently as he has his vital role in Fulham’s starting line-up. A translator was offered, twice. He declined, twice.

The Serb has grown immeasurably since making his big move from Torino to Fulham in January 2023, grown in the belief he can handle the Premier League and in stature too.

“I had other options, but I chose Fulham,” Lukic reveals.

“That first six months was tough for me, because I changed from my life in Italy. It’s impossible to compare it with the Premier League, which is the best league in the world. The level is much stronger here than Italy.

“Day by day, I improved a lot. Last season, I played the second half of the season very well. From August until now, I have started, and I have played very well. I’m happy.”

Lukic keeps a close eye on Chelsea’s Cole Palmer

Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

This has been another stellar season from perhaps the Premier League’s most underrated team, and a campaign in which Lukic has emerged from Joao Palhinha’s shadow to become one of the club’s most important players.

Palhinha spent two seasons as the Premier League’s best tackler and interceptor — and, with that sort of status, was always likely to move onwards and upwards. In July, to Bayern Munich, for a potential club-record £47.5million, he did. Some Fulham supporters already believe Lukic is Palhinha’s heir. Lukic has no such desire to be seen that way.

This season has seen him forge a new covalent bond in midfield with Sander Berge, the Norwegian who he claims has had a “very big impact” and made Fulham “stronger”. But so too has Lukic, starting 28 games in the league, absent only when he has been suspended or, for four games in the autumn, was suffering with a shoulder injury.

Fulham fans have grown fond — and expectant — of the defensive midfielder’s lung-busting displays. “I am proud of that,” he beams. “Because I’m a foreigner coming into the Premier League, to know that in the stands people are singing your name is something really special, to make an impression and show you are one of them. I just want to give my all every single day. Maybe the fans saw this and because of that have taken to me.

I just want to give my all, every single day. Maybe the fans saw this and because of that have taken to me

Sasa Lukic

“Honestly, it’s been a very good season for me and for the team. We have to finish in the best position we can. We have 51 points. We are close to becoming the best-ever Fulham Premier League team.” Fulham’s record points tally of 53 in the 2008/09 season is well within reach.

The Cottagers have faltered of late, though, a nervy comeback victory over bottom-of-the-league Southampton their only respite in the midst of league defeats to Bournemouth, Chelsea and Aston Villa.

That said, qualifying for Europe is still on the cards — it requires Fulham to finish seventh, or eighth if Manchester City win the FA Cup. Down in eleventh place, Fulham are nine points off seventh, but only two points off eighth, so either a City win is necessary or Aston Villa will have to draw a blank from here.

“Last season we did very well, but I said before this season we would fight for Europe, for something more,” Lukic says. “Now we are in the right spot to get into Europe. We have three more games and I believe we will do it.”

What Marco Silva has achieved during his Fulham reign has not gone unnoticed, and talk swirling around of interest from Saudi side Al Hilal, where Aleksandar Mitrovic now plays, is just the latest news Fulham fans have had to pretend they didn’t hear.

Lukic asserts that it is “very important” they keep hold of him.

“He’s a very good manager. I enjoy training and games with him. I have improved a lot with him, because he pushes us every day to get something special.”

Lukic’s own rise has already been special. The journey from Partizan Belgrade’s youth system to the Premier League, via a loan stint with Serbian third-division side Teleoptik, is some achievement — but Lukic always believed.

“Honestly, yes [I did]. My dream was always to play for the national team and in the Premier League. For me, the Premier League was the best league in the world, even when I was a child.

Lukic says it is ‘very important’ Fulham keep hold of manager Marco Silva

AFP via Getty Images

“I played in Italy and Spain [with Levante],” he says. “Now I have arrived here. I remember the first game was at Stamford Bridge. I wasn’t in the team because I had only just signed. The game was so, so amazing and I wanted to play straight away.”

One word that keeps coming up during our interview is ‘consistency’. It is, according to Lukic, Fulham’s golden ticket into the big time.

“It’s very important for this club every year to do better than last year. I have a feeling that next season we can do much better than this. We have to grow together. I think we have to be consistent. That’s the next step: be consistent. That’s my opinion.

“The last three years have been in the Premier League, and before that Fulham were in the Championship. Fulham is a club with history, and in London — it deserves to be always in the Premier League. Once we have consistency, other things will follow.”