Ljubiša Ranković (; born 10 December 1973) is a

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 ...

n former

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 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 ...

Playing career

After playing for Rad in the

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 ...

over one and a half seasons, Ranković was transferred abroad to South Korean club Ilhwa Chunma in October 1995, helping the team win the K League in November and the

Asian Club Championship The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competitio ...

in December of that year. He later made 12 appearances in the 1996 K League and five appearances in the 1996 Korean League Cup. Following his stint in Asia, Ranković joined

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 early

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 ...

. He spent seven seasons with the ''Crno-beli'', including loan spells to Chinese club Sichuan Dahe in 2002, as well as to fellow Serbian club

Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...

in 2003. Subsequently, Ranković moved abroad to France and joined Ligue 2 side Caen. He helped them earn promotion to Ligue 1 in his first season at the club. However, as they immediately suffered relegation from the top flight, Ranković left the country and signed for Ukrainian club Metalurh Zaporizhzhia in the summer of 2005. He returned to French football six months later and joined Ligue 2 club Sète, before hanging up his boots in 2006.

Post-playing career

After retiring from the game, Ranković was a member of technical staff at his former club

for seven years until December 2014, before joining Belarusian side Dinamo Minsk as assistant manager to Dušan Uhrin Jr. ahead of the 2015 season. He was brought to the club by newly appointed director of football

Vuk Rašović Vuk Rašović (Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Рашовић; born 3 January 1973) is a former Serbian footballer who is now the coach of Saudi Arabian club Al-Fayha. Playing career Rašović started to play for the youth teams of FK Partizan. He pla ...

. After Rašović replaced Uhrin as manager, Ranković remained serving as an assistant. He returned to Partizan in August 2016, becoming assistant manager to Marko Nikolić. In June 2017, Ranković joined

Aleksandar Stanojević Aleksandar Stanojević ( sr-Cyrl, Александар Станојевић, ; born 28 October 1973) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player. Playing career Stanojević started his playing career in Partizan youth squad. ...

in Greece as his assistant at PAOK. He rejoined Partizan in October 2017 to assist

Miroslav Đukić Miroslav Đukić ( sr-cyr, Мирослав Ђукић, ; born 19 February 1966) is a Serbian former footballer who played as a sweeper, and a manager. He spent 14 years of his professional career in Spain, notably at the service of Deportivo ...

. In April 2018, Ranković became assistant manager to

Mladen Krstajić Mladen Krstajić ( sr-cyr, Младен Крстајић, ; born 4 March 1974) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He represented Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. From Janua ...

with the Serbia national team, less than two months ahead of the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

. He also continued to assist Đukić at Partizan until the end of the season. In June 2018, it was announced that Ranković would be joining

as an assistant at Emirati club Al Dhafra.

Honours

;Ilhwa Chunma * K League:

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

;Partizan *

: 1996–97, 1998–99 *

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 ...

: 1997–98, 2000–01

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rankovic, Ljubisa Association football midfielders Chinese Super League players Expatriate football managers in Belarus Expatriate football managers in Greece Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate footballers in China Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in South Korea Expatriate footballers in Ukraine FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia players FC Sète 34 players First League of Serbia and Montenegro players FK Partizan non-playing staff FK Partizan players FK Rad players FK Zemun players K League 1 players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players PAOK FC non-playing staff Seongnam FC players Serbia and Montenegro expatriate footballers Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in China Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in France Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Serbia and Montenegro footballers Serbian expatriate football managers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Serbian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Serbian football managers Serbian footballers Sportspeople from Valjevo Stade Malherbe Caen players Ukrainian Premier League players 1973 births Living people