David Babunski has checked in at Tannadice.
The North Macedonia international became Dundee United’s seventh summer signing on Tuesday afternoon and arrives with a gold-plated apprenticeship at Barcelona and experience of top-level football in Serbia, Japan, Romania and Hungary.
The 30-year-old has represented his country 15 times and hopes his switch to the Scottish Premiership is a platform for many more to come.
And Babunski is a fascinating character off the pitch. Once subject of an interview titled “The world’s most intelligent footballer?”, he is a well-read student of philosophy and spirituality with a potent social conscience.
Here, Courier Sport offers the lowdown on United’s new midfield ace.
Family connections
Football is in the Babunski blood.
His father, Boban, was a centre-back of some repute in his playing days, turning out for clubs as varied as CSKA Sofia, Gamba Osaka and AEK Athens.
He won a couple of caps for Yugoslavia before making 23 appearances for Macedonia when the country earned its independence.
Boban, who would go on to coach with the national side, also plied his trade in Spanish football with Llieda and Logrones, which allowed David’s talent to be spotted first by local side Gramenet and then Catalan giants Barcelona.
David’s brother, Dorian, was also spotted at a young age and was snapped up by Real Madrid – placing the siblings on a tantalising collision course. However, neither would make a senior appearance for the respective clubs.
They were, however, teammates during a period together with Hungarian side Debrecen.
Dorian Babunski currently turns out for Swiss outfit Grasshoppers.
A Barcelona apprenticeship
“For a long time now, we have followed David’s development, and he is without doubt an extremely talented player.
“David is the future of Macedonian football.”
Those were the words of former Macedonia manager Cedomir Janevski, discussing a teenage Babunski who was emerging through the youth ranks at Barcelona and, at one point, earmarked as a potential successor to Andres Iniesta.
Sergi Samper, Alejandro Grimaldo, Adama Traore and Sergi Gomez were among his regular teammates with the Barca B team, who played in the second tier of Spanish football, while he experienced training with Pep Guardiola’s senior group.
Speaking last year, he said: “It was a privilege to train with Pep Guardiola and absorb as much as I could of his instructions or his explanations of the game and learn.”
In 2011, Babunski was named Macedonia’s young sportsperson of the year.
Title win and working with Ange Postecoglou
As is so often the case, the step from youth football to first-team action at a global superpower was too big to bridge, and Babunski made the decision to depart the Camp Nou in 2016, joining Red Star Belgrade.
In his sole campaign in Serbia, Babunski picked up a league winners’ medal but failed to cement a starting berth.
His next move would see him link up with former Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou, famed for his tireless training and front-foot approach to the game.
Babunski played 11 times under the Australian coach before moving onto Omiya Ardija in Saitama. There, he was a teammate of former Hearts striker Juanma, who bagged 13 goals in 43 outings in Gorgie.
A forgettable period in Romanian football with Botosani and Viitorul Constanta was impacted by the Covid pandemic, before Babunski kick-started his career with three years in Hungary with Debrecen and, most recently, Mezokovesd.
While his international career has not reached the heights once predicted by former coach Janevski, Babunski boasts a respectable 15 caps for North Macedonia, the most recent of which came against England in 2023.
He also captained his country at the European U21 Championships in 2017; the first time the age group had ever qualified for a major finals.
The philosopher
Babunski exercises his mind with the same vigour as his body.
In an interview with Goal.com in 2017, Babunski discussed his passion for philosophy, spirituality and neuroscience, while revealing that he was working on a book that would, “present the possibility to achieve a radical and profound change in the human mind.”
“It reveals a series of processes by which one may expand to higher dimensions of their consciousness and step onto the next stage of our evolutionary development,” he said.
“I question many topics, including religious, scientific, educational, economic, political, nationalistic and cultural paradigms, as well as social systems.
“I reflect on human nature, the mind and brain, social conditioning, the subconscious and conscious.
“Why have we not been able to change and establish harmony in the world despite accumulating so much experience and knowledge? Can humanity eradicate the suffering? Can a human being free itself from conditioning?”
He added: “An intelligent mind is an inquisitive mind: always curious, always open to new possibilities, always seeking new fields of knowledge. Questioning, never blindly accepting.”
Charitable work
Babunski and his brother, Dorian, spent Christmas 2015 at a refugee camp in the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, near the Greek border – on the Balkan route for displaced people seeking safe passage to the west
He said: “I just followed my natural desire to help those who are in bigger need.
“This desire has always been a driving force in my life. It strengthened the knowledge that we are all one. We are all refugees. We all have moved from one place to another on earth at some point, or our ancestors have done it.”
