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Dragan Stojković

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Dragan Stojković
File:Piksi2.jpg
Personal information
Full name Dragan Stojković
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Attacking Midfielder

Dragan Stojković (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Стојковић), (born March 3, 1965 in Niš, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia), is a former Serbian star footballer and current president of Red Star Belgrade Football Club. He is also well known by his nickname Piksi or Pixy.

Career

Radnički Niš

A 175cm, 73kg midfielder and occasional forward, Stojković began his professional playing career with Yugoslav First League and hometown side Radnički Niš in 1981-82 when he made one first-team appearance. The next four seasons, Stojković appeared in 69 matches for Radnički and scored eight goals.

Red Star Belgrade

With top Yugoslav teams chasing his signature in the summer of 1986, Stojković moved to Red Star Belgrade where he would spend the next four illustrious seasons, scoring 48 times in 120 appearances and developing into the best player in the league. He was the Yugoslav League MVP in 1988 and '89 season and his stellar performances with Red Star earned him the title of Zvezdina Zvezda only given out to the very best players in the club's storied history.

Olympique de Marseille

In the summer of 1990 he made a much publicized move to Olympique de Marseille, joing the star-ladden squad featuring the likes of Jean-Pierre Papin, Abédi Pelé, and Chris Waddle. He would remain their player for the next four seasons with a half-season loan move to Hellas Verona sandwiched in-between his stints in Marseille. The losers to Red Star in 1991, Olympique with Stojković in the squad won the European Cup in 1993.

Unfortunatelly, his time in Marseille was marred with multiple career-threatening injuries, meaning he never got to display his wide array of skills on the biggest European stage.

Nagoya Grampus Eight

In the spring of 1994 Stojković signed with Japanese J-League team Nagoya Grampus Eight, then managed by Arsène Wenger and featuring Gary Lineker. He spent seven seasons with the Grampus Eight, retiring as a player in 2001. Stojković played 183 matches for the club, scoring 57 times. He was named J-League MVP for the 1995 season. In Japan there are some monuments in his honour.

On Oct. 6th, 2001, his final match was held at Toyota Stadium, Nagoya Grampus Eight vs Red Star Belgrade. He played as a Belgrade player in the first half and played as a Nagoya player in the second half for his 42,000 loyal fans.[8]

National team

Olympic medal record
Representing  Yugoslavia
Men's Football
Bronze medal – third place 1984 Los Angeles Team Competition

Stojković made 84 career international appearances, scoring 15 times, those split between the SFR Yugoslavia national team and the FR Yugoslavia national team. He played for the former in Euro 84 and the 1990 FIFA World Cup and for the latter in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000. He made his international debut on November 12, 1983 in a scoreless draw against France. His final international match was against the country he spent much of his playing career in, Japan, on July 4, 2001.

Post-football

FA President

Upon retiring in 2001, 36-year-old Stojković immediately became the Yugoslav Football Association president, succeeding Miljan Miljanić. Though Stojković's appointment initially received wide public approval, his 4-year tenure will be remembered for some of the worst results in national team's history, culminating in a humiliating June 2003 qualifier loss to minnows Azerbaijan.

Hiring freshly retired former teammate and good personal friend Dejan Savićević to the position of national team coach despite not having any coaching experience was amongst Stojković's first orders of business in 2001. Initially considered bold and daring, the move quickly turned sour as the squad began faltering in Euro 2004 qualifying while Savićević feuded with many of the players.

Throughout the summer of 2003, in the wake of Azerbaijan fiasco that prompted Savićević's resignation, Stojković unsuccessfully courted Bora Milutinović for the national team head coaching role, only to eventually hire Ilija Petković.

Red Star Belgrade President

Since July 2005, Stojković has been the president of Red Star Belgrade. Similar to his FA appoinment 4 years earlier, Stojković again became a successor to another long term, larger than life figure, Dragan Džajić who occupied the president position for previous 20 years. This transfer of power was full of controversy with plenty of lobbying behind the scenes and at times open feuding in the press.

Honours

References

  1. ^ [1] pictures of Stojkovićs enjoing the first day of the street with Japanese supporters and a famous old Red Star Belgrade supporter, "Grandpa Milé(Japanese: Mire Ji-san")(aged 80 in 2001) whom lots of Nagoya supporters donated for to come to Japan to watch Stojković's last game
  2. ^ [2] article including the monument at Toyota SC.
  3. ^ Wikipedia Japan "Toyota Stadium"
  4. ^ auto-translation of Toyota Stadium(Japanese Wikipedia)
  5. ^ Picture of a part of the Pixy gate.Oct. 6th, 2001
  6. ^ [3]the article including Pixy gate picture written in Japanese
  7. ^ auto-translation of the article; you can confirm there is Pixy gate even though you can also see the translation is not perfectly precise.
  8. ^ [4]pictures on Oct. 6th, 2001 at Toyota Stadium.
Preceded by J-League Player of the Year
1995 		Succeeded by

Template:Zvezdine zvezde

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