'It feels like home': Andrea Iljkic on her Balkan roots and debut season with LSU

On Andrea Iljkic's recommendation, there are good beignets in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"I'd never really had beignets before I came here," Iljkic told Squad Depth.
"There's this place called Coffee Call, they're out of this world."

Iljkic grew up in Littleton, Colorado. 1,219 miles from Baton Rouge, beignets, and Louisiana State University, where she plays her college soccer.

As the child of two Bosnian immigrants, she says her upbringing was more Balkan than American.

"There's a whole Balkan community [in Colorado]. There's a bunch of Serbians, Bosnians, and Croatians. And I grew up around all of them. Even though we're friends, I see them as family," Iljkic explained.

"I think for all of us growing up, especially like in my family, it's been more, I would say, Bosnian or Croatian than it has been American. Mum always cooks our food and our holidays are more like Bosnian style. Roast roast lamb and all that."

Now, trying to find Balkan food in Southeastern Louisiana has proven tricky. Unlike where to obtain fried dough with powdered sugar, the 20-year-old had no suggestions on where to pick up some sarma or ćevapi.

Luckily for Iljkic, her mother sends care packages to campus with some of her Balkan "goodies" stashed away inside.

Answering the call

When she was a teenager, Iljkic attended a small Bosnian soccer identification camp in Colorado. While there, a scout with the Croatian national team saw Iljkic play and then contacted her father to ask for more highlights and information.

Iljkic's ancestry is Croatian. To this day, her parents and family still have a house there and she visits at least once a year.

"I just love being out there. It feels like home in another in a way," Iljkic said of Croatia.

In 2022, Iljkic made her debut for the Croatian U19s. She scored two goals in her first six appearances in the age group. Then, in July of 2024, she earned her first senior call-up. Although she didn't see the pitch this past summer, and formally make her debut, she said that wearing the crest was "everything."

Due to her commitments with LSU, Iljkic was unable to link up with the squad for the October Euro 2025 playoff against Northern Ireland. In its history, Croatia has yet to go to a women's World Cup or EUROs.

"We have a lot of talent, and there's a lot of younger girls coming in all the time trying to compete and get a position on that team. I think Croatia as a country is just improving every year, and I think that over a couple more years, we'll get to that point where we're competing against top nations," Iljkic posited.

Last week, Croatia fought valiantly but suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 aggregate defeat over two legs.

In the first leg, in Varaždin, Izabela Lojn gave Croatia an early lead only to then put the ball into her own net in the 90th minute. The return fixture, in Belfast, was 0-0 after 90 minutes and so went to extra time. Then, with just five minutes until a shootout would have been required, Lauren Wade popped up with a wonderstrike to eliminate Croatia.

Tournament Tigers

In her first proper season with LSU, Iljkic is laser-focused on success with the Tigers.

Individually, Iljkic has been a bright spark despite limited minutes. The attacker can operate as a 'No. 10' between the lines or off of another centre forward. She is relishing her role as a super sub.

After making her debut in August 2024, Iljkic has made 14 appearances (356 minutes), scored four goals and notched one assist. In only one of those appearances was Iljkic in the starting XI.

Head coach Sian Hudson has dubbed the sophomore a "Fox in the box," which Iljkic says is down to her penchant for always wanting to shoot when she gets close to goal.

Where Iljkic has managed to standout is in dead ball situations. Three of her goals were scored from free kicks outside of the box, with the other coming from the penalty spot.

Iljkic says that she didn't arrive at LSU as a free kick specialist, but has seen her reputation rise in that department with her trio of exquisitely curled right-footed screamers.

"Honestly, when I take free kicks, I don't do much thinking. I see where I want to shoot it. Take a step back, take a deep breath and just go for it," she said.

"I never took free kicks before [LSU], but I knew I was good at whipping in the ball. I knew that I was good at those curling kind of balls. I used to actually take free kicks and shoot far post, not over the wall to the left. But I just tried this year, I was in practice doing extra stuff, and I was like, "wow, it's actually going great." So, might as well try in the game."

LSU finished 11th in the SEC regular season, with 11 pts (W:3 D:2 L:5). That was enough to clinch a spot in the 12-team SEC playoff tournament which begins in Pensacola, Florida, on Sunday November 3rd.

Should the Tigers win the Conference cup then they will automatically earn a berth in the NCAA National Tournament. A strong performance to perhaps the semifinals would also strongly boost their chances of earning a wildcard spot. LSU has made the NCAA National Tournament the past three years (2021, 2022, and 2023) under coach Hudson.

Although they will not be favoured to bring home either the SEC Championship trophy or the NCAA College Cup, Iljkic has big aspirations to cause the upset. She has her eye on the prize. Everything else is secondary, for now.

"We want to win it [the SEC Cup]. We want to get that trophy. So I would say that's our main focus right now."

LSU will play Auburn in the first round of the SEC Soccer Tournament on Sunday November 3rd at 3 p.m ET. The match will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

The winner of that first round matchup will play Texas in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, November 5 at 3 p.m. ET.