Inspired by Nesta, Atletico's Stefan Savic is finally finding his groove

Stefan Savic has known for as long as he can remember that he wanted to be a central defender. As a kid growing up in the tiny Montenegrin municipality of Mojkovac, he became obsessed with Alessandro Nesta. By the time he was a teenager coaches had started to compare his playing style to that of his idol.

"Maybe it was because I had watched him so much," reflected the Atletico Madrid player in an interview with AS last year. "He was an example to me."

Not a bad one to follow, either. Nesta remains one of the greatest central defenders ever to grace a football pitch - a World Cup winner who also claimed all the biggest club prizes in Italy and Europe during his stints with Lazio and Milan.

Savic is not yet at the same level, but he does share with his idol a certain calm attentiveness - a rare capacity for reading the game and picking his moments - allied to impressive power and athleticism. Atletico hopes such talents will be to the fore against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Related: Bayern out to settle Spanish score in Madrid

The Germans arrive in Spain seeking revenge for last season’s semi-final defeat. Pep Guardiola has moved on since then, but the early evidence of this season is that Bayern remains brilliant as ever. So far the Bavarians have won all eight games they have played under Carlo Ancelotti, scoring 27 goals and conceding just the one.

Still, Savic is entitled to a measure of confidence. He nullified Robert Lewandowski completely when these teams met at the Vicente Calderon back in April - helping his team to a 1-0 victory. By contrast, he made only the briefest of injury-time cameos in the return leg - which Bayern won 2-1, with a goal from their Polish striker.

That semi-final doubled up as a neat synopsis of Savic’s first season in Madrid. When he played, for the most part, he excelled. Regrettably, it did not happen all that often.

At the beginning, Diego Simeone seemed eager to trust in his established players. Jose Gimenez and Diego Godin had been working successfully together at centre-back for more than a year - not only at Atletico but also with the Uruguayan national team. Although Simeone himself had been a driving force in the move to sign Savic, he was not in any rush to alter a winning formula.

Later, Savic’s cause was undermined by a string of injuries. After missing half of February with a thigh strain, he returned to play in a pair of games before damaging his calf. He came back again in late March only to aggravate the problem - putting him out of action until the middle of April.

By the end of the season, Savic had played in just 12 La Liga matches - and two of those off the bench. A weaker individual might have fallen into self-pity, and wondered whether he had made a terrible mistake coming to Atletico in the first place.

Savic, though, was too busy learning. "That’s a reason I came here," he told AS. "I knew the competition that I was going to face, but it was time to prove myself at the highest level."

Yes, the injuries were a frustration, but this is a man who has overcome greater hardships in his life. At 20 years old he moved from the Serbian club Partizan to Manchester City, barely two months after losing his father - a man whom he describes as his role model - to suicide.

Savic struggled during his one year in England, vilified by his own team’s fans after mistakes in high-profile games against Liverpool and Tottenham. Many accused him of lacking the talent to succeed at this level, showing little sympathy for the challenge of adapting to a new country at such a tumultuous moment of his life.

And yet, if you ask Savic, he will tell you that his Premier League experience was a fruitful one. For a full year, he got to train against a City strikeforce that contained Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli. It was, in his words, "like taking an exam every single day."

The lessons he learned went with him to Fiorentina - whom he helped to finish fourth for three years in a row. Atletico represented a natural next step: a team who would give Savic the opportunity to challenge for titles and compete every year in the Champions League.

This is the level that he needs to be competing at, in order to fulfil his potential as a player. And besides, even Alessandro Nesta himself went through some difficult years.