Serbia

The Story

Serbia is not at this World Cup. They went to Wembley in November needing a result against England to keep their qualifying hopes alive, lost 2-0, and then had to watch Albania beat Andorra the same night to take the last playoff spot in UEFA Group K. Finished third. Out. No playoff, no second chance, no trip to the United States.

This was not supposed to happen. Serbia's squad is real: Dušan Vlahović at Juventus, Aleksandar Mitrović banging in goals in the Saudi Pro League, Sergej Milinković-Savić running the midfield at Al-Hilal, a defense full of Bundesliga and Serie A names. The Serbian federation sacked Dragan Stojković after the summer 2024 Euros and went through two interim managers during qualifying. The chaos at the federation level was the story. The results followed.

So why include Serbia in a 2026 World Cup guide? Because the Balkan community in DFW is small but real, because the Yugoslav soccer tradition is one of the great coaching exports of the 20th century, and because the Serbian diaspora will still be at Balkan Garden in Grapevine this summer eating ćevapi and drinking rakija. They will be cheering for whichever Balkan team still has a flag in the tournament (Croatia, most likely) or quietly watching France-Brazil in the last-sixteen and arguing about what Milinković-Savić would have done on that counter-attack. Serbian football is a long story. This chapter is a short one.

3 Players to Know

Dušan Vlahović

The 26-year-old Juventus striker from Belgrade, big and fast and cold in the box — signed from Fiorentina in 2022 for €80 million, the biggest transfer in Juventus's history. His relationship with the club has been complicated (a 2025 contract standoff, persistent transfer rumors) but he's still Juve's first-choice center forward and still Serbia's top scorer of the current generation. In Serie A he's scored 20+ in a season three times. He was supposed to be the face of Serbia's next World Cup. Instead he'll watch it from a beach.

Aleksandar Mitrović

The 31-year-old Al-Hilal striker and all-time leading scorer in Serbia's history, with 59 international goals and counting. Took the Saudi money in 2023 and has since scored 100+ times in the Saudi Pro League — the kind of haul that gets dismissed in Europe but that still matters when he pulls on the national shirt. Physical, aerial, a classic target-man in an era that pretends not to have those anymore. He will be 33 by the time the next qualifying cycle begins. The math, like Lewandowski's, is getting cruel.

Sergej Milinković-Savić

The 31-year-old midfielder who spent his Lazio prime as one of the best box-to-box midfielders in Europe, signed for Al-Hilal in 2023, and recently extended his Saudi contract through 2028. 6-foot-4, technically gifted, the kind of midfielder who can arrive late in the box and head home a corner. The Serbian midfield has been built around him for a decade. What comes after him — Kosta Nedeljković, Lazar Samardžić, the next generation — is still an open question.

The Food

Signature Dish

Ćevapi are the gateway — small, skinless hand-rolled sausages of minced beef (sometimes beef-and-lamb), grilled fast over charcoal, served five or ten at a time inside warm lepinja flatbread with a heap of finely chopped raw onion and a smear of kajmak (a cultured dairy spread somewhere between clotted cream and fresh cheese). Next to that: pljeskavica, the oversized Balkan hamburger patty, seasoned the same way and grilled the same way. Sarma (stuffed sour cabbage), ajvar (roasted red pepper and eggplant relish the Serbs will argue about with any Macedonian or Bulgarian in earshot), and burek (a spiraled phyllo pastry with cheese or meat). Rakija, the fruit brandy, to finish. Don't sip it. Don't.

Where to Eat in DFW

Balkan Garden Bistro in Grapevine — a real Eastern European bistro in a Texas strip mall, run by a Bosnian family, serving proper ten-piece ćevapi plates with lepinja, kajmak, and onions that taste the way they should. The menu also covers Serbian staples like ćufte (meatballs in tomato sauce) and musaka (the Balkan version, not the Greek). For takeaway supplies, Eddie's EuroMart on Harry Hines in Dallas stocks imported Serbian ingredients — Pljeskavica patties, kajmak, Smoki peanut puffs, rakija — for a proper home watch party. The nearest Serbian-specific restaurant is a long drive; the Balkan is close enough.

Fan Culture

Serbian support is loud, hot-tempered, and deeply emotional — the whole Balkan fan culture in one sentence. At home matches in Belgrade, the Delije supporters' section behind the goal at Rajko Mitić Stadium (or the Marakana, as everyone calls it) is a wall of red-white-blue flares, chant cycles that last ten minutes, and flag poles the size of telephone poles. Away, they travel in smaller but no-less-committed numbers. The music is turbo-folk at full volume, the drinks are beer and rakija, and the arguments about the manager start at kickoff and go until dawn. In DFW there's no Serbian bar as such, but the Balkan community gathers at Balkan Garden or at private homes — and the mood this summer, absent a Serbian flag on the pitch, will be less celebratory and more "well, at least let's watch Vlahović on TV next season."