Dragan Džajić
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| Position(s) | Retired Winger | ||
File:Dzaja.jpg Dragan Džajić (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Џајић) (born May 30, 1946 in Ub, Serbia) is widely considered to be one of the best football players in Serbia's and the former Yugoslavia's history.
Dajić's professional career (1961-1978) was spent primarily with Red Star Belgrade, for whom he scored 287 goals in 590 games. From 1975 to 1977 he played for SC Bastia of France (finding the net another 31 times). Džajić was just 18 when he was first named to the Yugoslav national team. He made his debut on June 17, 1964 against Romania and would go on to earn 85 caps (the most in the history of the Yugoslav national team) and score 23 goals.
Few who saw the left-winger play could ever forget Džajić's brilliant play. He achieved international renown for his passing and dribbling as well as his goal-scoring. His most famous international match was likely the 1968 European Championship semifinal against England, in which his 85th-minute lob over goalkeeper Gordon Banks gave Yugoslavia a 1-0 victory against the defending world champion. The British press dubbed him "the magic Dragan," and Pelé was moved to say: "Džajić is the Balkan miracle – a real wizard. I'm just sorry he's not Brazilian because I've never seen such a natural footballer." [1]
Džajić retired as a player in 1978, at age 32. He later returned to his club, serving as Red Star's technical director and then, from 1998 to 2004, as the club's president.
In 2004 he resigned from that position due, he stated, to "health issues."
In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Serbia and Montenegro by the Football Association of Serbia and Montenegro as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. [2]
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