Dragan Ćirić (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...

: Драган Ћирић; born 15 September 1974) is a

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n retired professional

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 ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for

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 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

, and

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club colo ...

. Internationally, he played for the national team of Yugoslavia, earning 4 caps.

Club career

Early career

After starting out at local club Srem Jakovo,

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

-born Ćirić finished his development at

, sharing teams with the likes of

Savo Milošević Savo Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Саво Милошевић, ; born 2 September 1973) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player. A former forward, he signed for English club Aston Villa after making a name for himself at Partizan. ...

and

Albert Nađ Albert Nađ (, ; born 29 October 1974) is a Serbian professional football manager and a former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the assistant manager at Partizan. At international level, Nađ represented Serbia and Montenegro a ...

. This trio was promoted to the senior squad in 1992–93, as they won

the league ''The League'' is an American sitcom that aired on FX and later FXX from October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015, for a total of seven seasons. The series, set in Chicago, Illinois, is a semi-improvised comedy show about a fantasy football league ...

in that and the following seasons under manager

Ljubiša Tumbaković Ljubiša Tumbaković (, ; born 2 September 1952) is a Serbian professional football manager. He is the most successful coach in the history of Serbian powerhouse Partizan which he led to six national championship titles and three national cup w ...

. Ćirić conquered a further two national championships during his first spell and was the team's

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 the 1996–97 season.

Barcelona

In July 1997, Ćirić signed a four-year contract with

. Over the course of his career at Barcelona, he played 35 games across all competitions in his debut season. In addition into featuring in Barcelona's

1997–98 UEFA Champions League The 1997–98 UEFA Champions League was the 43rd season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier club association football, football tournament, and the sixth since its re-branding from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The ...

campaign, he also contributed to the team's treble conquest of

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

and the

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

. Coach

Louis van Gaal Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (; born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former football player and manager. At club level, he served as manager of Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, as well as having three spel ...

employed Ćirić primarily as a right-winger, although it was not his best position. After losing his spot in the lineup he was loaned to Greek side

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long move, scoring in double digits and also

winning Winning may refer to: * Victory Film * ''Winning'' (film), a 1969 movie starring Paul Newman * '' Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman'', a 2015 documentary by Adam Carolla and Nate Adams Music * ''Winning'', an album by Ten Foot Pole, 2022 ...

the domestic cup. Upon his return to the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...

, he was sold to fellow Spaniards

in July 2000.

Return to Partizan

In June 2004, Ćirić returned to Partizan, signing a three-year contract. Under coach

Vladimir Vermezović Vladimir Vermezović (Serbian Cyrillic: Владимир Вермезовић; born 30 June 1963) is a Serbian football manager and former player who is the head coach of Slovenian PrvaLiga club Mura. Playing career Vermezović started playing ...

, he helped the club win the national league in his

comeback season ''Comeback Season'' is a 2006 film directed by Bruce McCulloch. It stars Ray Liotta as Walter Pearce, a married man who, with the help of local football star Skylar Eckerman (Sipos), tries to win back his wife (Headly) after cheating on her. Fil ...

with an unbeaten record. He also played in Partizan's historic

2004–05 UEFA Cup The 2004–05 UEFA Cup was the 34th edition of the UEFA Cup. The format of the competition had changed from previous seasons, replacing that from the previous one after the abolition of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1999; an extra qualifying round was ...

campaign, up to their elimination in the final 16 by

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

. After that season, he retired shortly after at the age of 31.

International career

Ćirić was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

four times for

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. He made his debut in a 4–1 friendly win against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

on 12 November 1995, coming on as a substitute for

Dejan Petković Dejan Petković ( sr-Cyrl, Дејан Петковић, ; born 10 September 1972) is a Serbian football pundit and retired footballer. In his native country he is widely known under the nickname Rambo while in Brazil he is known as Pet. He played ...

Administrative career

In December 2014, Ćirić was named

director of football 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 ...

at Partizan. He left the position less than two months later, citing dissatisfaction with the state of Serbian football as the main reason for his decision.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

;Partizan *

First League of FR Yugoslavia The First League of Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Прва савезна лига / Prva savezna liga) was the top football league of Serbia and Montenegro, before the country's dissolution in 2006. The league was formed following the breakup of Yu ...

: 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 2004–05 *

FR Yugoslavia Cup The Serbia and Montenegro Cup was an association football knockout cup tournament of Serbia and Montenegro played between 1992 and 2006, after which Serbia and Montenegro became separate nations. The competition was the continuation of the old M ...

: 1993–94 ;Barcelona *

: 1997–98, 1998–99 *

: 1997–98 *

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

;AEK Athens *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most im ...

: 1999–2000

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciric, Dragan 1974 births Living people Footballers from Belgrade Serbian footballers Association football midfielders Yugoslav First League players FK Partizan players La Liga players FC Barcelona players Real Valladolid players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Serbia and Montenegro international footballers Serbia and Montenegro expatriate footballers Serbia and Montenegro footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Greece Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Spain Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Greece FK Partizan non-playing staff