Dragutin Stevic-Ranković (born 19 December 1979) is a former 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 ...

. Born in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, he began his career there and later moved to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

where he lives with his wife and two boys. As of 2020, he is a senior football coach for Tekkerz HK, based in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong who specialise in maximum touch training.

Playing career

As a youth, Stević-Ranković played with

FK Kolubara FK Kolubara () is a professional football club based in Lazarevac, Serbia. They compete in the Serbian SuperLiga, the top tier of the national league system. History During the existence of SFR Yugoslavia, the club spent two consecutive season ...

in his hometown of

Lazarevac Lazarevac ( sr-cyr, Лазаревац, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. , the town has a total population of 25,526 inhabitants, while the municipal area has a total of 58,622 inhabitants. Its name stems from the name of medieval Ser ...

. He then worked his way up the ladder in Serbian professional football, making stops at FK Polet Mirosaljci,

FK Loznica FK Loznica (Serbian Cyrillic: ФК Лозница) is a professional football club from Loznica, Serbia. History LSK The first soccer ball arrived in the town of Loznica in 1919. It was brought from London by local student Milisav Vasić, who h ...

FK Čukarički Fudbalski klub Čukarički () is a Serbian professional football club from Belgrade, more precisely from the Čukarica municipality, that currently plays in the Serbian SuperLiga, the top tier of Serbian football. Founded in 1926, the club sp ...

FK BSK Borča Fudbalski klub BSK Borča ( sr-cyr, Фудбалски клуб БСК Борча) is a Serbian football club from Borča, City of Belgrade. It is the football club of the Sports Society BSK Borča, ''BSK'' stands for ''Borčanski sportski klu ...

and

OFK Mladenovac OFK Mladenovac () is a football club based in Mladenovac, Belgrade, Serbia. They compete in the Belgrade Zone League, the fourth tier of the national league system. History The original club became a member of the Belgrade Football Subassociatio ...

. In 2005, Stević-Ranković signed a contract with

Kitchee SC Kitchee Sports Club (; ; ) is a Hong Kong professional football club based in Kowloon. It was founded in 1931 and currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. The club has won championships in Hong Kong 11 times, including 6 Hong Kong ...

of the Hong Kong First Division. The club won the

Hong Kong League Cup Hong Kong Football Association League Cup () is an annual football competition contested by clubs in the top-tier Hong Kong domestic football league (currently Hong Kong Premier League). The cup was relaunched for the 2014–15 season after being ...

that season. He memorably scored in the 30th minute of a 1:0 win in the cup semi-final. In 2006, Dragutin moved to Rangers (HKG). While there, he had perhaps his finest match as a

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

in Hong Kong, scoring three goals against

Citizen AA The Citizen Athletic Association (), simply known as Citizen or TCAA, is a Hong Kong athletic club. Its football team () currently competes in the Hong Kong First Division. The club has a long history in playing in the top-tier Hong Kong First ...

on 11 May 2006. Unfortunately, his time with the club was cut short by a left knee injury sustained in a game on 15 October 2006. The injury was serious. Despite two operations, he had to retire from playing professional football. Stević-Ranković completed his UEFA 'A' Licence in Serbia in 2015.

Coaching career

As a UEFA 'A' Licence Dragutin Stević-Ranković signed with Global Makati in 2018. He took over a club who had not won a game all season, they had the lowest scoring ratio and highest goals conceded of any Philippines Premier League team and were sitting rock bottom of the table. After Stević-Ranković became the head coach, fortunes began to change as he started to implement changes and the positive impact was recognized immediately, they started to score more and concede less and results were improving drastically. They also had some positive results in the domestic cup (Copa Paulino Alcantara) which was recognized by the Filipino media outlets and this was attributed to the positive impact of Stević-Ranković becoming the head coach. Come the end of the season a new contract was offered, however even though he maintains a great relationship with the club and staff, due to the club's financial issues Stević-Ranković declined the offer and moved back to Hong Kong where he is a highly sought after coach. He has coached the YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College football team since 2009 winning numerous accolades along the way.

Honours

: 2005-2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevic-Rankovic, Dragutin 1979 births Living people Hong Kong Rangers FC players Kitchee SC players Hong Kong First Division League players Serbian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong Serbian footballers Association football forwards