Predrag Radosavljević ( sr-Cyrl, Предраг Радосављевић; born June 24, 1963), better known by the nickname Preki (), is a

Serbian-American Serbian Americans ( sr, / ) or American Serbs (), are Americans of Serb ethnic ancestry. As of 2013, there were about 190,000 American citizens who identified as having Serb ancestry. However, the number may be significantly higher, as there w ...

former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach with

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

(MLS). He previously coached

Sacramento Republic FC Sacramento Republic FC is an American professional soccer team based in Sacramento, California, that plays in the Western Conference of the USL Championship, the second level in US soccer. Co-founded by Warren Smith and Joe Wagoner in 2012, the ...

and

Saint Louis FC Saint Louis FC was an American professional soccer team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The team was founded in May 2014, and competed in the USL Championship. The team played their matches at West Community Stadium, a venue inside the World Wid ...

in the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

and coached in MLS with

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

and

Chivas USA Chivas USA (pronounced ''CHEE-vahs'') was an American professional soccer team based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. The club played from 2005 to 2014 in Major League Soccer (MLS) and was a subsidiary of Mexican club C.D. Guada ...

. During his playing career he played for English clubs Everton and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, and was an 'MLS original' upon the formation of MLS in 1996, playing for the Kansas City Wizards (now known as Sporting Kansas City) and

Miami Fusion The Miami Fusion was a professional soccer team based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They played in Major League Soccer (MLS) for four seasons, from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one of the league's first two expansion teams, their best seas ...

. He is the only two-time winner of the MLS MVP award, now known as the Landon Donovan MVP Award, and represented the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. He was elected to the American National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2015 Preki left his managing role at

by mutual consent. It was thought that he had landed the

Leicester City FC Leicester City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Leicester in the East Midlands of England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home ...

job, but it was given to

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri Grande Ufficiale OMRI (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian football manager and former player. He will be the new head coach of club Cagliari from 1 January 2023. Ranieri began his managerial career in the lower leagues in ...

Playing career

Professional

Born in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

SR Serbia , life_span = 1944–1992 , status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia , p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia , flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg , p2 ...

, Preki played briefly for

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

in the old

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

after coming from

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 ...

where he played in their youth team. In the summer of 1985, the Tacoma Stars head coach

Bob McNab Robert McNab (born 20 July 1943) is an English former footballer who played as a defender. McNab featured for clubs Huddersfield Town, Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers, San Antonio Thunder, Barnet, Vancouver Whitecaps and Tacoma Stars in his pl ...

spotted Preki at an indoor tournament in

. McNab signed Preki. He played five seasons for the Stars. During those years, he was a three-time First Team All Star, the 1988 and 1989 All Star Game MVP, led the league in assists in 1988 and scoring in 1989 and was the 1989 MISL MVP. During the summer of 1989, Preki began to consider becoming a U.S. citizen and returning to the outdoor game in order to make himself eligible for the U.S. national team. He played one season for

Råslätts SK Råslätts SK is a Sweden, Swedish association Football, football club located in Jönköping. Background Råslätts Sportklubb is a sports club from the residential area of Råslätt in south Jönköping. The club was founded on 31 January 197 ...

in Sweden in 1990. The Stars released Preki in July 1990 as part of a salary reduction move. In August, he signed with the St. Louis Storm. He played two seasons in St. Louis before being bought by Everton manager

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston, ...

for a fee of £100,000 in the summer of 1992 following a trial. He made 53 appearances for the Blues, 28 of those as a substitute. In June 1994, Preki signed with the

San Jose Grizzlies The San Jose Grizzlies were a professional indoor soccer team based in San Jose, California. The team was founded on November 24, 1993, and played in the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL). After playing in the 1994 and 1995 CISL seasons, th ...

of the

Continental Indoor Soccer League The Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) was a professional indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997. History In the summer of 1989 Dr Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and California Sports, told his executive Vice Pre ...

where he rejoined Bob McNab from his Tacoma days. He played eight games, scoring sixteen goals, before returning to England in August 1994 to play for

. On July 5, 1995, the Grizzlies purchased Preki's contract from Portsmouth. He was the CISL's second leading scorer and league MVP.

Major League Soccer

Preki resumed outdoor play beginning with MLS's inaugural season in 1996 when he joined the

Kansas City Wiz Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the we ...

, renamed the Wizards after the 1996 season. The league allocated him to the Wiz on February 6, 1996. He played every season of his MLS playing career for the Wizards, except for one season with the

in 2001. After the Fusion were contracted, the Wizards reacquired Preki in the

2002 MLS Dispersal Draft The 2002 Major League Soccer SuperDraft was held on February 10, 2002 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. One month earlier, MLS had contracted two clubs: Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion. In conjunction with the contraction, the league conducted bo ...

, but only after every other team in the league had passed on selecting him. Preki is the only player to have won the

MLS MVP Award The Landon Donovan MVP Award is an annual award for MLS players. It is voted on by media, MLS players, and club management and is given to the player deemed the most valuable player in the league each season. From 1996 to 2007, the award was kno ...

and the

MLS Scoring Champion Award The MLS Golden Boot (currently commercially termed "Audi Golden Boot") has been awarded since the 2005 season to Major League Soccer's regular–season leading scorer. The award replaced the MLS Scoring Champion Award that was awarded since the l ...

(now respectively known as the Landon Donovan MVP Award and the MLS Golden Boot) twice, winning in 1997 and 2003, and is also the current all-time league leader in points scored (270 on 79 goals and 112 assists, plus another 25 points on 10 goals and 5 assists in the playoffs). He won the 2000

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference ...

with the Wizards. Preki retired following the 2005 season, scoring a goal in the last minute of his final game with Kansas City. He was named to the

MLS All-Time Best XI The Major League Soccer All-Time Best XI was selected In 2005 as part of the league's tenth anniversary celebrations. Major League Soccer, the top soccer league in the United States, named its All-Time Best XI, a selection of the best eleven playe ...

after the season, and was 42 years old when he played his final competitive game.

International

Originally from Yugoslavia, Preki was living and working in the US in 1985 but when he was offered a spot on the American national team he applied for U.S. citizenship which was granted on October 25, 1996. He made his debut for the United States on November 3, 1996 against

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

at the age of 33, making him one of the oldest players to make an international debut. Preki played a total of 28 games for the U.S., scoring four goals, one of them to beat

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

at the 1998 Gold Cup. Two of those games, including one against his native

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

(now

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

), came in the

. He made his last appearance for the national team in a 2–0 loss away to Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying on September 5, 2001.

International goals

Coaching career

Upon the appointment of

Bob Bradley Robert Frank Bradley (born March 3, 1958) is an American soccer coach who is the head coach and sporting director of Toronto FC. A native of New Jersey and graduate of Princeton University, Bradley coached in the American college game and Maj ...

as the United States national team head coach, Preki was promoted as head coach of Chivas USA for the 2007

season. Preki left Chivas "by mutual consent" on November 12, 2009, following Chivas' failure to progress to the latter stages of the MLS playoffs. He became head coach of

on November 19, 2009.TFC set to name Preki new head coach
/ref> However, Preki didn't last the 2010 MLS season with Toronto, being fired along with General Manager

Mo Johnston Maurice John Giblin Johnston (born 13 April 1963) is a Scottish football player and coach. Johnston, who played as a forward, started his senior football career with Partick Thistle in 1981. He moved to Watford in 1983, where he scored 23 leag ...

on September 14, 2010. Under Preki, Toronto qualified for the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League after winning the 2010 Canadian Championship. On July 15, 2013, after nearly three years out of coaching, Preki was named head coach of the USL Professional Division (now United Soccer League) expansion

in advance of their inaugural 2014 season. He won the USL Pro Championship game in September 2014 with the club. On July 8, 2015, Preki announced his resignation from his post to take up a coaching role in the United Kingdom. On October 12, 2016, USL club

introduced Preki as its coach for the upcoming 2017 season. On November 20, 2017,

relieved Preki of his coaching duties. In January 2018, Preki was hired as an assistant coach to

Brian Schmetzer Brian Schmetzer (born August 18, 1962) is an American soccer coach and retired player. He is the head coach of the Seattle Sounders FC, who play in Major League Soccer (MLS), having been assistant coach for the team until Sigi Schmid's departure ...

with the

Coaching record

Honors

Tacoma Stars * Major Indoor Soccer League runner-up: 1986–87 Kansas City Wizards *

: 2000 * Supporters' Shield: 2000 *

US Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

: 2004 Individual * Major Indoor Soccer League MVP: 1988–89 * Major Indoor Soccer League Scoring Champion: 1988–89 * Major Indoor Soccer League Pass Master (most assists): 1987–88, 1988–89 * 1989 Major Indoor Soccer League All-Star Game MVP: 1989 * Landon Donovan MVP Award: 1997, 2003 *

MLS Golden Boot The MLS Golden Boot (currently commercially termed "Audi Golden Boot") has been awarded since the 2005 season to Major League Soccer's regular–season leading scorer. The award replaced the MLS Scoring Champion Award that was awarded since the le ...

: 1997, 2003 * National Soccer Hall of Fame: Class of 2010 *Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame: Class of 2013

References

External links

Preki profile at United States National Soccer Players

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Preki 1963 births Living people American people of Serbian descent Footballers from Belgrade Yugoslav emigrants to the United States Yugoslav footballers Serbian footballers American soccer players Association football midfielders Red Star Belgrade footballers Tacoma Stars players St. Louis Storm players Everton F.C. players San Jose Grizzlies players Portsmouth F.C. players Sporting Kansas City players Miami Fusion players Yugoslav First League players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players Premier League players Continental Indoor Soccer League players English Football League players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars Major League Soccer MVPs United States men's international soccer players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players National Soccer Hall of Fame members Yugoslav expatriate footballers Serbian expatriate footballers American expatriate soccer players Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Serbian expatriate sportspeople in England American expatriate sportspeople in Sweden American expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in England Serbian football managers American soccer coaches Chivas USA non-playing staff Chivas USA coaches Toronto FC coaches Sacramento Republic FC coaches Saint Louis FC coaches Seattle Sounders FC non-playing staff Major League Soccer coaches USL Championship coaches Serbian expatriate football managers American expatriate soccer coaches American expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer managers in Canada