Marko Peter Stanojevic ( sr, Stanojević; born 1 October 1979 in irmingham,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is an Italian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer. He last played on the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

for Italian

Top12 The Top10, known as the Peroni Top10 for sponsorship reasons, and formerly Top 12, is Italy's top level professional men's rugby union competition. The Top 10 is run by Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) and is contested by 10 teams as of the 2019� ...

club

Rovigo Rovigo (, ; egl, Ruig) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of Northeast Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. Geography Rovigo stands on the low ground known as Polesine, by rail southwest of Venice and south-southwest of P ...

. Before his move to Italy, he had played four seasons with

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

in England.

Playing career

Born in Birmingham to a Serbian father and Italian mother, Stanojevic played his school rugby at

Warwick School Warwick School is a selective, independent day and boarding school in Warwick, England in the public school tradition. Known until about 1900 as King's School, Warwick, it is believed to have been founded by Æthelflæd of Mercia in 914 AD ...

. After playing for local club side

Claverdon RFC Claverdon is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England, about west of the county town of Warwick. Claverdon's toponym comes from the Old English for "clover hill". The hill is near the centre of th ...

he came to the attention of

in 1998, when he attended several training sessions after he matriculated at the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

. Stanojevic soon began making frequent appearances in the Bristol U-21s, and signed an academy contract in 1999. After earning a degree in Information Systems at UWE, he spent the 2001–02 season at

Coventry RFC Coventry Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club based in Coventry, England. The club enjoyed great success during the 1960s and 70s, with many players representing their countries. Coventry's home ground is the Butts Park Arena, ...

, and then went to Italy for a season at

Colleferro Colleferro (IPA: /kɔllefɛrro/) is a small town with 20 698 inhabitants of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is a residential zone with many different industries and sports structures. It borders the City of F ...

. Qualifying for Italy through his mother, he was named to the national sevens team in 2002. Stanojevic returned to Bristol Rugby, this time with the senior side, in 2003, and went on to score 17 tries during a 2004–05 season which saw Bristol

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the

Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

. He continued to play for Bristol through the 2006-07 season. He made his first appearance for the 15-man national team in 2006 against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. He added five more appearances for the ''Azzurri'' before the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

. Stanojevic scored one of two Italian tries in their blowout loss to the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

in their Rugby World Cup opener.

External links

Marko Stanojevic
at the

Italian Rugby Federation The Italian Rugby Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Rugby) or FIR is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Italy. The FIR has one seat on the 28-member World Rugby Council, the governing body of World Rugby. (All other members of ...

Interview
at unofficial Bristol Rugby fan site {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanojevic, Marko 1979 births Living people English people of Italian descent English people of Serbian descent Italian people of Serbian descent Alumni of the University of the West of England, Bristol Male rugby sevens players Rugby union players from Birmingham, West Midlands Italian rugby union players Rugby union wings Bristol Bears players People educated at Warwick School Italian British rugby union players Italy international rugby union players Serb diaspora sportspeople