Player profile
About Milan Borjan
Milan Borjan (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Борјан; born 23 October 1987) is a professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Slovak club Slovan Bratislava on loan from Red Star Belgrade. Born in Yugoslavia, he plays for the Canada national team. Borjan was born on 23 October 1987 in Knin, former SFR Yugoslavia today Croatia, to ethnic Serb parents Boško and Mirjana. He is also of Croatian descent through his paternal grandmother. Borjan got his first taste of organized soccer in the town, playing with the Dinara Knin youth side. Borjan's family lived in Knin until Operation Storm in 1995, at which point his family fled to Belgrade, and Borjan began playing soccer with FK Radnički Beograd. In 2000, the family emigrated to Canada, first living in Winnipeg, Manitoba for a few months, before settling in Hamilton, Ontario where his parents still reside. He attended Glendale Secondary School. He played youth soccer in Canada with East Hamilton SC for six months, before joining Mount Hamilton SC. Borjan was called to join the Canada national team in 2010, following strong performances with FK Rad. He was called up to the Canadian senior team on 3 February 2011, and made his team debut in an exhibition game against Greece a week later. That summer, Borjan was called up to the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup roster, making his Gold Cup debut on 11 June 2011 in a 1–0 victory over Guadeloupe at Raymond James Stadium. He also recorded his first national team game on home soil at BMO Field on 1 June 2011 in an exhibition against Ecuador that ended in a 2–2 draw. Due to the suspension of first choice goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld, Borjan started in the 0:0 home draw against Honduras in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 12 June 2012. Since the end of 2012, Borjan has been Canada's starting goalkeeper, named to the final squad in the 2013, 2017, and 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He earned his first red card for Canada on 11 June 2015 in a 2018 World Cup qualifying match, handling the ball outside the box after a mistake from Julian de Guzman. Borjan remained Canada's starting goalkeeper for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. During this campaign, he played a crucial role in one of Canada's best ever results, making a goal-line save to keep Canada in the lead during stoppage time in a 2–1 victory over Mexico in Edmonton, Canada's first win against Mexico in 21 years. He also kept a clean sheet against the United States in a 2–0 victory in Hamilton, Ontario, after which he was named by Canada Soccer as Canada's player of the month for January. On November 13, 2022, Borjan was named to Canada's squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In Canada's second match against Croatia, Borjan was the target of verbal taunts and abuse from Croatian supporters, with Canada Soccer filing a formal complaint with FIFA post-game. In June 2023, Borjan was named to Canada's final squad for the 2023 CONCACAF Nations League Finals. He played in both the Semi-final and Final as Canada finished runners-up to the United States. On June 19 Borjan was named to the final squad for the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He departed the team prior to their third match of the tournament against Cuba due to injury. Borjan is married to Snežana Filipović, a former marketing director of FK Partizan and sister of Nenad Filipović. He has a younger brother, Nikola, who is also a goalkeeper in the Red Star system. Borjan speaks fluent English, Bulgarian, Spanish and Serbian.
