Montenegrin best goalkeeper in Portugal: Carević without conceding a goal in the first four rounds of Primeira

Returning to the Iberian Peninsula was the right move - Montenegrin goalkeeper Lazar Carević and his Famalicao marked the start of the Portuguese Primeira, one of the strongest European leagues.

The guy who grew up in Grbalj, and later wore the jerseys of Barcelona B and Vojvodina, was named Portugal's best goalkeeper for August.

Carević is the only goalkeeper in the Portuguese championship who has not been defeated once during the first four rounds, and his Famalicao is in second place in the standings with three wins and a draw.

"Carević's selection as the best goalkeeper of the month is no surprise," wrote the famous "A Bola".

"The Montenegrin goalkeeper was decisive for Famalicao's impeccable defensive performance at the start of the season," announced "Rekord", another well-known sports media outlet from Portugal.

Carević received 30,95 percent of the votes in the Primeira Liga coach election, winning ahead of Diogo Costa, the "unit" of Portugal and Porto (28,57) and Andrew from Gil Vicente (9,52).

The team from Budva kept a clean sheet in matches against Santa Clara (3:0), Tondela (1:0), Gil Vicente (0:0) and AFS (1:0).

Since arriving at Famalicao, he has played a total of 24 games as a starter, and has kept a clean sheet in exactly half of them - 12.

During the previous season, he enabled the team from the Minho province to equal a record that had been held since the 1992/93 season, when they did not concede a goal in five consecutive games.

On Sunday, Carević and Famalicao will face their toughest test of the season so far - the giants Sporting will arrive in Vila Nova.

Carević played two matches for the Montenegrin national team - both friendlies in 2022 against Armenia and Slovakia when the coach was Miodrag Radulović.

The last time he was part of the Montenegrin national team was in March 2023, when during the warm-up before the match against Serbia at the stadium near Gorica, he was attacked by some fans because he was wearing red, blue, and white gloves.

After that, Radulović invited him for the June matches against Hungary and the Czech Republic, but Carević did not show up for the gathering. The coach told reporters at the time that they would have to ask the Montenegrin goalkeeper the reason for his absence.

Carević's response came in a statement in which he wrote, among other things, that he had agreed with Radulović to skip the aforementioned gathering, and he also mentioned assistant coach Srđan Kljajević, who he said told him that if he thought he was wearing the aforementioned gloves, he should not come to defend for Montenegro.

"As for the gloves themselves, I've been using that model for years and my sponsors send me the same ones whenever a new model comes out in a new color. After all, Mark ter Stegen and Emiliano Martinez also wear the same ones," Carević said at the time.