Dukanac, the coach who gave Matic his big break, is now in charge at Jedinstvo. “I didn’t have a conversation like with an owner of a club,” he said of the day Matic called to offer him the job. “We made a deal in 30 seconds, like friends.”

The president of both Jedinstvo and Vrelo Sport is Darko Matic, his cousin. The equipment man is an old school friend. The Jedinstvo assistant coach is Milos Obradovic, a buddy from the Red Star academy; when Obradovic had to retire as a player after breaking his leg a second time, Nemanja Matic offered him the job.

“There are about 50 people whose wages he pays for in Ub,” said Branko Matic, the club’s secretary and one of the few people at the club not related in some way to Nemanja Matic.

Jedinstvo was on its knees financially when Matic agreed to take it over two years ago. The club had just been relegated to the fourth tier and its stadium, Branko Matic said, was in bad shape. Nemanja Matic paid for its reconstruction and named it after Dragan Dzajic, perhaps Serbia’s greatest player, who has roots in Ub, and at Jedinstvo.

“His connection with this place is so strong,” Branko Matic said of Nemanja Matic.

He spoke while sitting in a restaurant overlooking the field. Forests rise on two steep banks around the stadium, where 1,300 new red seats were recently installed. Nemanja Matic paid for a new roof, too.

The stadium, however, shows little trace of him aside from a framed Chelsea shirt in the trophy room and a large action picture of him on the wall of a clubhouse corridor. But he was never far away.

“When he plays in Manchester and Jedinstvo is playing at the same time, he calls at halftime” to find out what the score is, Branko Matic said.