NK Samobor player created the first football players application: ‘Learn, train and watch matches’

He comes from Samobor, where his Samobor football club is soon celebrating 100 years of existence, he is only 23 years old, but the vision of entrepreneurs. Moran Cerkez made the Ballers app, intended for training of football skills, and has a football academy in Sweden. Moran is also a Samobor football player and the application has been successfully implemented in the club’s work.

– I have stopped actively training because of my business obligations because big projects with the Ballers application in foreign markets require my presence in the team in Sweden. However, I believe that I will return to football soon because it is something I truly love – said Moran, whom we were able to catch in a conversation in Samobor despite his numerous obligations in Sweden.

Samobor: Moran Cerkez made the Ballers App | app |

Photo: Igor King/Pixsell

The idea for the application came, he says, at the age of 18, when he decided to start entrepreneurial waters and work on various football and marketing projects.

– My biggest wish was to enable the players what I did not have and what I recognized as a big failure in the football system. Children, parents and players are making years of effort into the development of their football skills, and most of them later do not know how to use that knowledge and experience. That is why we are my partner Hamid Kabodvand, also the founder of the project, and I decided to offer players and clubs a systematic solution that provides complete support through the application. In the application, players learn through online lectures, train with the help of our exercises and connect with professionals in an interesting and competitive way – says young Samoborac, whose application has more than 160,000 downloads.

Samobor: Moran Cerkez made the Ballers App | app |

Photo: Igor King/Pixsell

He imagined, he says, as a social network for football players with additional tools for development and training. It contains more than 3500 recorded exercises, and the players can post videos on their profile, compete in training with players from their club and around the world, correspond with teammates, train and learn through various educational facilities, while clubs can follow their players, hold online lectures, transfer training and matches and organize all activities through a simple and transparent club.

As for the football academy, he came up with his partner Hamid. He was the executive director of the AFC Eskilstun Club before launching the application, and he brought the club from the fifth Swedish league to the first.

– In order to cooperate with academies around the world, we had to create our own academy and prove that our approach to the development of players is truly functioning. Our Academy was our ‘Proof of Concept’, through which we developed and adapted the work model. In less than a year we were able to reach zero to 270 active players. We are currently present in two cities – Stockholm and Gothenburg – and soon we are opening two more branches, one in Malmö, while we are not discovering the other location for now. Now we also introduce this model in the Academy of Our Partners. We are currently working with more than ten clubs from the US, Sweden, Australia and Spain, and we are coming to Croatia soon – says Moran, who fell in love with football as a child.

Samobor: Moran Cerkez made the Ballers App | app |

Photo: Igor King/Pixsell

His father introduced him to the world of football and had been kicking the ball for the first time at the age of three. With about five years he came to the Samobor home club. He spent several years there and then decided to look for new opportunities.

– When I was 16, I returned to Samobor and then I first played for the senior team. In the meantime, I also played abroad, more precisely in Spain and Slovenia, but in the end all the roads brought me home again, to the club that raised me. For the last four years I spent again in Samobor. I would like to thank the management of the club, led by President Marija Duke because without them, my development would not be the way it is. In everything I do, the club has always supported me as much as I am immensely grateful – said Cerkez, who is proud of NK Samobor, for whom Tomo Šokota and Tomislav Butina played in the famous 1990s.

Croatia, he says, is still full of football talents today and, he points out, we are one of the most talented nations in the world of football. Football, as he explained, has been deeply rooted in our culture and children have been living this sport since a young age, and as the main problems he emphasizes bad infrastructure in clubs, player soothing and corruption presence.

– Our players abroad are extremely respected, but within the country the situation is slightly different. Players do not have sufficient support or security, often only viewed as numbers, not as people who have potential and dreams. That’s what we want to change – to give players a chance to develop in a healthy and supportive environment – Cerkez concluded. 