Nikola Tavares
Nikola Hrvatsko Tavares is a professional footballer who plays as a central defender for club Barnet. Born in South Africa, he is a former youth international for Croatia.
Tavares is a product of the Crystal Palace and Brentford academies and began his senior career in non-League football with National League clubs Wealdstone and Dagenham & Redbridge. He transferred to Barnet in 2024.
Club career
Youth years
A central defender, Tavares began his career in youth football in Cape Town, before moving into the academy at English club Brentford. He was a part of the U15 team which won the Junior Globe at the 2014 Milk Cup and he progressed to sign a scholarship deal in 2015. The Brentford academy was closed at the end of the 2015–16 season and Tavares trialled unsuccessfully with the U18 teams at Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion during the early months of the 2016–17 season. His Brentford registration was cancelled in February 2017.Crystal Palace
Tavares joined the academy at Premier League club Crystal Palace in late 2016 and by February 2017 he had progressed to sign a professional contract to be a part of the Eagles' U23 team. In what remained of the 2016–17 season, he made 19 U23 and U18 appearances. Despite suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury, he signed a new contract at the end of the 2017–18 season. He progressed to captain the U23 team during the 2018–19 season and was an unused substitute during the first team's final match of the campaign.Tavares signed a new one-year contract in July 2019 and was an unused substitute on four occasions during the 2019–20 season, before suffering a quadriceps injury late in the campaign. Entering the 2020–21 season injured and out of contract, Tavares signed one-month rolling contracts in order to remain at Selhurst Park during his rehabilitation. He was released in early 2021.