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

. 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

. 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