The 18-year-old Macedonian wonderkind is taking the Junioren Bundesliga West by storm and is on his way to the top.
photo by 1. FC Köln: Darko is celebrating his goal scored against Rot-Weiß Essen U19
Darko Churlinov was born in Skopje and plays his football in Germany. He is a pacey prolific winger who made his debut for Macedonia against Belarus at 16 years and 8 months old making him the youngest player ever to be capped by the senior Macedonian national team. Churlinov has been capped 26 times for the various Macedonian youth teams from the under 16s to under 21s and scored a total of 8 goals. He will be hoping he can play a big part in the upcoming European qualifiers and the Nations League semi-final in 2020. There is certainly a place in the national team for a player of his calibre.
The wonderkind started his playing career in Germany and played for both Hansa Youth and Magdeburg U17 before moving to Köln U19 where he currently plays. Churlinov is currently having his best season yet and is the top scorer in the Junioren Bundesliga West with 16 goals and has also registered 4 assists in 17 appearances for Köln under 19s. His strongest position is out on the left wing due to his pace, directness and his ability to cut inside onto his strong foot and create goal scoring opportunities for himself. He has also shown how versatile he is this season by playing as a striker and right winger as well as a left winger. Darko is also someone who isn’t afraid to get stuck in after picking up 3 yellow cards and 1 straight red card meaning he missed 3 games this season through suspension.
He will be hoping he can get an opportunity in the senior team and make his competitive debut before the end of the season. During the winter break Churlinov joined the senior team as they traveled to Spain for some warm weather training. He also made a short cameo appearance in the friendly match against Groningen. Köln currently sit top of the 2.Bundesliga and are trying to return to the Bundesliga, so their manager Markus Anfang might not want to risk playing Darko at this current moment but nearer the end of the season he should get an opportunity to make his debut.