Dejan Čurović (, ; 10 August 1968 – 11 August 2019) was a Serbian
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
who played as a
striker
Striker or The Strikers may refer to:
People
*A participant in a strike action
*A participant in a hunger strike
*Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant
*Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America
People wi ...
.
A powerful forward, Čurović played with four clubs during his career, namely
Zemun and
Partizan Partizan may refer to:
Sport
* JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs:
**AK Partizan, athletics
** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling
** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo
**FK Partizan, association fo ...
in the former Yugoslavia, as well as
Vitesse and
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
in the Netherlands. He secured legendary status at Vitesse by scoring the last ever goal at the
Nieuw Monnikenhuize
Nieuw Monnikenhuize was a multi-use stadium situated in Monnikenhuize, a northern neighbourhood of Arnhem, Netherlands. It was used mostly for football matches and hosted the home matches of SBV Vitesse Arnhem. The stadium was able to hold 12,00 ...
and the opening goal at the
GelreDome.
Playing career
Čurović started out at his local club
Zemun. He was a member of the team that won the
Yugoslav Second League in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
. In his
debut season in the
Yugoslav First League, Čurović scored 11 goals in 27 appearances, as the club finished in 13th place.
In the summer of 1993, Čurović was transferred to
Partizan Partizan may refer to:
Sport
* JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs:
**AK Partizan, athletics
** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling
** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo
**FK Partizan, association fo ...
. He quickly formed a prolific
striking partnership with
Savo Milošević and finished the
1993–94 season as the team's second-highest scorer with 27 goals, helping the ''Crno-beli'' win
the double.
After a successful year at Partizan, Čurović moved abroad and signed with Dutch club
Vitesse. He spent six seasons in Arnhem, scoring 47 goals across all competitions. In the summer of 2000, Čurović switched to fellow
Eredivisie side
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
. He spent three years at the club, before retiring from the game.
Post-playing career
In June 2011, Čurović was appointed as
sporting director
A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...
of
Serbian First League club
Inđija.
Death
Čurović died from
leukemia on 11 August 2019, one day after his 51st birthday.
Career statistics
Honours
Zemun
*
Yugoslav Second League:
1989–90
Partizan
*
First League of FR Yugoslavia:
1993–94
*
FR Yugoslavia Cup:
1993–94
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curovic, Dejan
1968 births
2019 deaths
People from Zemun
Footballers from Belgrade
Yugoslav footballers
Serbia and Montenegro footballers
Serbian footballers
Association football forwards
FK Zemun players
FK Partizan players
SBV Vitesse players
FC Groningen players
Yugoslav Second League players
Yugoslav First League players
First League of Serbia and Montenegro players
Eredivisie players
Serbia and Montenegro expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands
Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands
Deaths from leukemia