Branko Milosevic (born 21 August 1964) is a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who made several appearances for the

Socceroos The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated wit ...

. Milosevic is widely regarded as one of the greatest imports to have graced the NSL.

Europe

Born in

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

SR Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

, Branko Milosevic played for Olimpija Osijek as a junior and later was picked up by

NK Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

where he played with the likes of

Zvonimir Boban Zvonimir "Zvone" Boban (; born 8 October 1968) is a Croatian former footballer who currently works at UEFA as the Chief of Football. Boban played as a midfielder and was usually deployed as an attacking midfielder. He played most of his professi ...

in the

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

. Branko left zagreb shortly after arriving and joined

SSV Ulm 1846 SSV Ulm 1846 is a German football club from Ulm, Baden-Württemberg. The modern-day football department, officially playing as SSV Ulm 1846 Fussball, was formed on 9 March 2009 when the department separated from SSV Ulm 1846. The club's great ...

in Germany where he had two successful seasons before coming to Australia.

Australia

Milosevic came to Australia in 1987 and played for Croatian side Melbourne Croatia (

Melbourne Knights Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, the second-tier of the Australian soccer league ...

). He was an instant star; he brought so many great qualities to the NSL and was arguably the best player in Australia. He left

in 1991 to move to Sydney side

Sydney Olympic FC Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957 by Greek immigran ...

. He had a great first season and Eddie Thompson who was managing the Socceroos at the time had marked him as his player of the year. Branko finished runner up in the

Johnny Warren John Norman Warren, Order of the British Empire, MBE, Order of Australia, OAM (17 May 1943 – 6 November 2004) was an Australian association football, soccer player, coach, administrator, writer and broadcaster. He was known as ''Captain Soccer ...

medal as he did a few years back while at

. Milosevic left

in 1995 after Coach David Ratcliffe dropped the

Socceroo The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated wi ...

midfielder. West Adelaide were quick to offer and brought Milosevic to Adelaide. After a couple of seasons at West Adelaide Branko was able to change his game style and play as sweeper, despite being in his mid 30s. He was playing very well and kept the West Adelaide SC defense strong and organised and was appointed

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in 1997. Milosevic then announced his retirement from the NSL in 1999 after the club announced that they were pulling out of the NSL due to a financial crisis. 10 years later Branko made his comeback to play for

Adelaide Olympic Adelaide Olympic F.C. is a football club from Adelaide, South Australia. The club competes in the National Premier Leagues South Australia. Origins The club's origins can first be traced back to 1978, where it was founded under the name of Ad ...

in 2009 and won the premier league player of the year at 45 years of age despite only playing 7 games. During the 2009 campaign Branko and his son became the first father and son to play together in the same team in the premier league.

National Honour

Milosevic made his Australian debut against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in 1990. He made 15 appearances and scored 2 goals. Milosevic scored against New Zealand in 1991, and

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

in 1992.

Coaching career

Milosevic took up his first job as manager to

in 2000 where he was player/Coach in the premier league (2nd division), they won the league undefeated and were promoted into the super league (1st division). The following year he finished 6th in the super league and 6th again in 2002. Branko then coached the SA state teams for a couple years before joining Adelaide Raiders in 2005 where in his first year he finished 2nd in the league and 2nd in the league cup losing out to rivals

White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football clu ...

in extra time. After making his comeback to soccer in 2009 for

as player/assistant coach the club appointed Branko as the head coach for the 2010 season.

External links

* http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/Players/M/MI.html
http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/Socceroo/1993A.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20080910222841/http://www.sesasport.com.au/pages/documents/Croatiasquads1953-2006.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20080324140821/http://www.croatiasa.com/soccerclub/raiders.htm
http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/Socceroo/1991A.html
http://www.footballnews.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22790
http://www.footballnews.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32994
http://standard-messenger.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/super-league-alagich-leads-raiders/
https://web.archive.org/web/20060821223639/http://members.ccmariners.com.au/aleague/CCM/article/show.asp?articleid=5974&menuItemID=%3Cbr />http://www.adam.com.au/ahowe/nsl/d13/m9293110.html
http://www.adam.com.au/ahowe/nsl/d13/m9798125.html

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milosevic, Branko 1964 births Living people Footballers from Osijek Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Australian expatriate men's soccer players National Soccer League (Australia) players Yugoslav men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Yugoslav First League players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Melbourne Knights FC players SSV Ulm 1846 players Sydney Olympic FC players West Adelaide SC players Australian soccer managers