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Dragan Stojković (Serbian: Драган Стојковић; (born March 3, 1965 in Niš, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia),
also known under the nickname Piksi (Serbian:
Пикси) is a Serbian former footballer and current manager of J. League side Nagoya
Grampus.
Stojković was long time captain of the Yugoslavia national
football team and Red Star Belgrade[2], and is
considered one of the best players in the history of Yugoslavian
and Serbian football. He is one of the five players to be awarded
the title Star of the Red Star.
Career
Early
childhood
Born to father Dobrivoje and mother Desanka, Stojković took to
football very early while growing up in Pasi Poljana community near
Niš. He has been nicknamed Piksi after Pixie, one
of the characters from the cartoon Pixie and Dixie and Mr.
Jinks.[3]
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 54 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, joining
the star-laden 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. In
the finals of the UEFA Champion's Cup, Marseille played against
Stojkovic's former team Red Star. Stojkovic, a penalty kick
specialist, entered the game late as a substitute but refused to
shoot against his former team. However, Olympique - with Stojković
on the bench - won the European Cup in 1993.
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.
National
team
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.
Career
statistics
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 the 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 the 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
In July 2005, Stojković became the president of Red Star
Belgrade. Similar to his FA appointment 4 years earlier,
Stojković again became a successor to another long term, larger
than life figure, Dragan Džajić who occupied various
leading positions within the club's administration during previous
26 years. This transfer of power was full of controversy with
plenty of lobbying behind the scenes and at times open feuding in
the press.
The 2005-06
season
One of Stojković's first orders of business ahead of the 2005-06
season was firing the head coach he inherited, Ratko
Dostanić, and bringing Walter Zenga who thus became the first
foreigner ever to coach Red Star. Calling on his Japan connections,
Stojković also got Toyota Motor
Corporation to invest in the club through a shirt sponsorship
deal. Additionally, he also opened the club's doors to various
prominent Serbian companies like Delta Holding and Telekom Srbija
thus creating a pool of sponsors.
On the player personnel front, Stojković initially more-or-less
continued the existing "buy low sell high" policy that meant
players were mostly recruited from Red Star's own youth system or
smaller clubs throughout Serbia and Montenegro, and then sold
abroad as soon as they gained some exposure on the European scene.
Stojković's most prominent initial move was loaning out striker Marko
Pantelić to Hertha Berlin for €250,000 on the last day of the summer 2005
transfer window (Pantelić was eventually sold to Hertha for
additional €1.5 million in April 2006). On the other hand,
20-year-old striker Milan Purović and 22-year-old keeper Vladimir
Stojković were brought to the club from Budućnost Podgorica and FK Zemun, respectively.
Additionally, by bringing in Ghanaian midfielder Haminu Dramani,
president Stojković indicated he was also interested in affordable
foreign imports, which would soon become a staple of his transfer
policy. All three new arrivals gelled well with the existing squad
(featuring the likes of Nikola Žigić, Boško
Janković, Milan Biševac, Dušan Basta, Nenad
Kovačević, Aleksandar Luković, and Milan Dudić), as
Red Star won the domestic double in impressive fashion. The club
also played some impressive football in UEFA Cup where on
last group matchday only a late goal by RC Strasbourg's Kevin Gameiro prevented them from
progressing to the eight-finals.
The 2006-07
season
Winning the double combined with some fine European outings
during previous season raised the fans' expectations considerably
as they now wanted the existing Red Star squad to be kept intact
(especially Nikola Žigić who reportedly at the time
became a target of some high profile English Premiership clubs) in
order to make a serious run at qualifying for the UEFA
Champions League. However, the first move came as a complete
shock - president Stojković sold goalkeeper Vladimir
Stojković to FC
Nantes, reportedly for €3
million. Trying to deal with the angry fan reaction, he attempted
to explain that the move had been necessary to cover the club debt
that grew to alarming levels following years of mismanagement and
unpaid commitments of some key sponsor pool members.[4]
The wholesale continued with Nenad Kovačević, Milan Dudić, Haminu Dramani,
Aleksandar Luković, and Boško
Janković also leaving, but their departures caused
comparatively less angry fan reaction. However most were still
disappointed to see the winning team disassembled and sold-off so
quickly.
On October 12, 2007 Stojković announced that he was stepping
down as the president of Red Star Belgrade.[5]
Coaching
career
Stojković returned to Japan
to take over as manager of his former club, Nagoya Grampus on
22 January 2008. On 15 March 2008 the former J.League MVP won his
first game as manager as Nagoya Grampus stunned AFC Champions League 2007 Champions Urawa
Reds 2-0 at Saitama Stadium. Despite his glorious
playing career at Nagoya, many Nagoya fans worried about his lack
of experience as a coach, however his team finished in 3rd place
and he led the club to AFC Champions League for the first
time.
Honours
References
External
links
Yugoslavia
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