Nebojša Jelenković ( sr-Cyrl, Небојша Јеленковић; born 26 May 1978) is a former

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 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 a

defensive 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 boundari ...

. He has played more than 290 domestic games with

Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

and holds the record for the second most domestic games played by a foreigner in the Bulgarian A Group. He is also the first foreigner to become a captain of a Bulgarian team. In 2004, he obtained a Bulgarian passport.

Career

In Serbia

Jelenković began his career at hometown club

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...

. In the summer of 1998, he signed with FR Yugoslavia

champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...

Obilić Obiliq, ) or Obilić ( sr-cyr, Обилић, ), also referred to as Kastriot ( sq-definite, Kastrioti, ) is a List of cities and towns in Kosovo, town and Municipalities of Kosovo, municipality in Kosovo. According to the Kosovo Agency of Statist ...

Litex Lovech

In 1999 Jelenković moved to

. He made his first appearance for Litex in a Champions League qualification match against

Widzew Łódź RTS Widzew Łódź () is a Polish football club based in Łódź. The club was founded in 1910. Its official colours are red and white, hence their nicknames ''Czerwona Armia'' (Red Army) and ''Czerwono-biało-czerwoni'' (Red-white-reds). Histor ...

, on 28 July 1999. His league debut came on 8 August, in a 1–0 loss against

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia ( bg, ПФК Славия София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home groun ...

on the opening day of the 1999–00 season. On 20 November 1999, Nebojša scored his first goals, scoring twice in a 3–1 away win over

Velbazhd Kyustendil Velbazhd Kyustendil ( bg, Велбъжд Кюстендил) is a Bulgarian association football club based in Kyustendil. The club currently competes in the A RFG Kyustendil, the fourth tier of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1919. ...

. He scored his final goal of the season in a 6–0 win at home over Volov Shumen on 1 April 2000. On 29 August 2002, Jelenković scored his first-ever European goal in a 3–1 away win over Lithuanian Atlantas Klaipėda in their

2002–03 UEFA Cup The 2002–03 UEFA Cup was the 32nd edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, the second-tier European club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA. The 2003 UEFA Cup Final, final was played between Portuguese side FC Porto ...

qualifying round second leg tie. Three weeks later, he scored an own goal in a 1–0 home loss against

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

in the first round of the tournament. In 2006, Jelenković was on the radar of then Bulgarian manager Hristo Stoichkov as a prospective candidate for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

, but eventually did not meet the eligibility criteria because of having appeared in matches for the FR Yugoslavia U-21. In the same year

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

attempted to secure the services of the Serbian midfielder. On 30 August 2007, Kuban Krasnodar confirmed Jelenković has joined on loan for three months. He spent most of his time with Kuban on the bench, making only three

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

appearances. In December Jelenković returned to Litex and earned 12 appearances in the Bulgarian A PFG, scoring one goal to the end of the season.

Spartak Trnava

At the end of 2007–08 season his contract expired and Jelenković signed with

Spartak Trnava FC Spartak Trnava () is a Slovak professional football club based in Trnava. Historically, it is one of the most successful clubs in the country, having won the Czechoslovak First League five times and the Czechoslovak Cup on four occasions, an ...

on a one-year contract for the 2008–09 season. He earned 27 appearances playing in the

Corgoň liga The Slovak Super Liga is the top level football league in Slovakia, currently known as the Fortuna Liga due to a sponsorship arrangement. It was formed in 1993 following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The record for most titles is eleven, ...

, scored one goal and the team finished in third place.

Return to Litex Lovech

On 12 June 2009, Jelenković again came back to

on a long term contract. On 12 March 2011, he made his 250th appearance for Litex in the Bulgarian A PFG, in a 2–1 win over

Pirin Blagoevgrad Futbolen klub Pirin ( bg, Футболен клуб „Пирин“), also known as Pirin Blagoevgrad is a Bulgarian football club based in Blagoevgrad, which currently competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. Th ...

. Jelenković announced his retirement at the end of the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season. He has featured on 293 occasions in the

A PFG The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

and is currently second on the all-time appearance list among foreign players in the top flight of Bulgarian football (after Macedonian Vančo Trajanov).

Career statistics

Awards

;Litex Lovech ** Bulgarian A PFG 2009–10, 2010–11 ***

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup ( bg, Суперкупа на България) is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match an ...

2010 **3 times

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournamen ...

winner: 2001, 2004 and 2008

References

External links

FK Obilić Team Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jelenkovic, Nebojsa 1978 births Living people Footballers from Novi Sad Serbian footballers Association football midfielders RFK Novi Sad 1921 players FK Obilić players PFC Litex Lovech players FC Kuban Krasnodar players FC Spartak Trnava players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Russian Premier League players Slovak Super Liga players Serbian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Russia Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Slovakia Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia