Axed by Serbia after they failed to reach the Euro 2016 finals, Dusan Tadic is enjoying a new lease of life in international football and has propelled the Balkan nation to top spot in their 2018 World Cup qualifying group. The Southampton winger has scored three and set up the other five goals for Serbia in their three Group D games so far, leading the way in Sunday’s 3-2 home win over Austria with a goal and two assists. Tadic’s Serbia career had looked all but over after former coach Radovan Curcic dropped him for friendlies against Poland and Estonia in March, leading the winger to walk away from the international setup.
Slavoljub Muslin, who took over in May, held out an olive branch when he recalled the 27-year-old and Tadic has made the most of a second chance to shine for his country. “I almost burst into tears when the whole stadium started chanting my name at the end of the game,” Tadic told reporters after the pulsating win over Austria.
“It doesn’t matter who’s getting the assists and the goals, the important thing is that we are winning. Muslin has deployed the right strategy and we’re only going to get better.”
Tadic is thriving in a revamped 3-4-3 formation as a right-sided forward playing behind striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, with Filip Kostic on the other flank. The role has given him more freedom in attack and Serbia have reaped the rewards, topping the group on seven points from three games, ahead of Ireland on goal difference.
Tadic, however, was quick to highlight that Serbia, who have not qualified for a major tournament since the 2010 World Cup, still had a long way to go in the World Cup campaign.  Serbia’s next qualifier is a tough fixture away to Euro 2016 semi-finalists Wales on Nov. 12.

FIFA president Infantino fears Allardyce sting is ‘tip of the iceberg’
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has expressed his concerns over third-party ownership in soccer and hinted that the sport’s global governing body may need to adopt fresh measures to weed out the issue. Sam Allardyce was sacked as England manager after 67 days in charge when he was filmed making comments about how rules banning transfers involving third-party ownership could be circumnavigated in an undercover newspaper sting.
“First of all, I was very surprised. Then I felt very sad because when stories like this come out with regard to misconduct, money flows and so on, it’s not good for football,” Infantino said.
The Telegraph newspaper then unearthed another crisis when eight current and former Premier League managers were accused of receiving ‘bungs’ for player transfers as part of the same series of reports highlighting corruption in the game.
“When you hear that this is only the tip of the iceberg and there is maybe more to come then this is maybe more worrying. Before taking any final judgement, we have to wait for the investigation by the (English) FA,” Infantino added.
Napoli striker Milik out for ‘months’
Napoli striker Arkadiusz Milik will be out for several months after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in Poland’s World Cup qualifying victory over Denmark. Following an MRI scan, Napoli issued a statement confirming Milik had suffered a “total rupture” during the 3-2 win in Warsaw on Saturday.
He will likely go under the knife on Monday and is expected to be absent from the pitch for 4-6 months. The Polish federation had earlier taken to Twitter to announce that Milik would likely need surgery and “be out for several months”.
Milik, 22, joined Napoli in August from Ajax and has made a huge impact at the Serie A club. After two rounds of the Champions League for Napoli he is joint top scorer on three goals.