Zoran "Bata" Mirković ( sr-cyrl, Зоран Бата Мирковић, ; born 21 September 1971) is a retired 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 lea ...

and current manager.

Playing career

Club career

Mirković made his first appearance for FK Rad during the 1990–91 season. But even before that he and his teammates won the Yugoslav title in the under-21 category, the biggest success Rad ever had. Mirković spent three seasons in Rad as a professional player, and all together played 62 matches, scoring one goal. His talent didn't go unnoticed by Partizan officials and they invited him to sign for Partizan. Mirković signed for Partizan and replaced the injured Blažo Pešikan. In the first three years Mirković was with Partizan, he established himself as a player, became a first-choice player in 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 ...

and won three titles (the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

in 1993–94 followed by the league title in 1994–95. He wore the number 2

shirt A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. ...

and became a favourite of the Partizan fans because of his fighting spirit especially in derby matches against

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

. He was also a favourite because, in those difficult times (

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

and sanctions), he upheld his obligations towards Partizan and stayed for all three years stipulated in his contract. He played 82 matches for Partizan (26 in the 1993–94 season, 29 in the 1994–95 season and 27 in the 1995–96 season), scoring one goal. Mirković spent two seasons with

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

. He got injured in the first match in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

league and had to take a three-month break. He played a role of midfielder/defender and his performance was so good that the then

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

coach

Marcello Lippi Marcello Romeo Lippi (; born 12 April 1948) is an Italian former professional association football, football player and manager, who led the Italy national football team, Italy national team to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was appoin ...

invited him to sign for Juventus. He was very popular among the Atalanta fans who were instrumental in convincing the club not to sell him to

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

when that option seemed inevitable. Mirković's career in Juventus can be divided in two different periods. Under coach Lippi, Bata played 19 Serie A matches, scoring one goal. He also played

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

matches. When

Carlo Ancelotti Carlo Ancelotti (; born 10 June 1959) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Brazil national team. Nicknamed "Carletto" in Italy and "Don Carlo" in Spain, he is regarded as one of the greatest ...

took over in the spring of 1999, Mirković was no longer a first-choice Juve player, playing mostly

Italian Cup Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

matches. In summer 2000, Mirković signed a three-year contract with Fenerbahçe. In his first season in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

he won a

Turkish League Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

title and was a finalist in

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

. In his second season in Turkey he played Champions League and came second in Turkish League. His third season in Fenerbahçe was not so successful. Three coaches and problems in the club caused Fenerbahçe to end the season in the sixth place. Then in January 2004, following a 6-month break from football, Mirković became a Partizan player once again, signing a contract for two and a half years. On 6 March 2006, Mirković announced his retirement due to a recurring back injury at the age of 34.

International career

Mirković was a first choice player for the

of FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro where he usually played in the right-back position and wore the number 2 shirt. He played 59 matches with the senior national team. He was a participant in the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

in France but missed

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

because of a three-match ban following an incident in the last qualifying match, played against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, where he grabbed Robert Jarni by the testicles and therefore was sent off. His final international was a June 2003 European Championship qualification match away against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Post-playing career

Administrative career

On 24 April 2007,

Football Association of Serbia The Football Association of Serbia () is the governing body of football in Serbia, based in Belgrade. It organizes Serbian football leagues, namely the Serbian Superliga, the Serbia national football team, as well as the Second Leagues. FSS was ...

(FSS) appointed Mirković as sporting director of the national team, responsible for the A-squad and the under-21 squad. However, he quit by early December 2007, citing poor professional cooperation with the FSS leadership headed at the time by

Zvezdan Terzić Zvezdan Terzić (Serbian Cyrillic: Звездан Терзић; born 21 May 1966) is a Serbian football administrator and former player. He currently serves as the general director for Red Star Belgrade of the Serbian SuperLiga. Immediately afte ...

. FSS president Terzić (who would soon afterwards be indicted on embezzlement charges) commented on Mirković's resignation as follows: "Mirković is my mistake since I didn't know him well enough as a person before I brought him into the FSS. He's a wonderful person, but couldn't manage to be a part of the system and even said so on several occasions to both myself and general secretary Zoran Laković". Mirković was chosen as the vice-president of FK Partizan on 18 August 2008. He was vice-president for about a year when he resigned after Partizan's early exit in the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds.

Managerial career

Mirković began his managerial career as assistant coach of Sinđelić Belgrade in 2015 eventually being promoted to head coach in July 2015. He remained in that position until December 2015. In February 2016, he became the assistant coach of the Montenegrin national team where he worked directly with his former coach

Ljubiša Tumbaković Ljubiša Tumbaković (, ; born 2 September 1952) is a Serbian professional football manager. He is the most successful coach in the history of Serbian powerhouse Partizan which he led to six national championship titles and three national cup w ...

. He remained in that position until 4 August 2018 when he replaced Miroslav Đukić as head coach of Partizan. He was head coach of Partizan until abruptly resigning after a 1–0 loss to

Voždovac Voždovac ( sr-Cyrl, Вождовац, ) is a Subdivisions of Belgrade, municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2022 census results, the municipality has a population of 174,864 inhabitants. The municipality is located in the south ...

on 10 March 2019.

Personal life

In May 2013, Mirković married Sanela Šaulić, daughter of singer Šaban Šaulić making Mirković the

stepfather A stepfather or stepdad is a biologically unrelated male parent married to one's preexisting parent. A stepfather-in-law is a stepfather of one's spouse. Children from his spouse's previous unions are known as his stepchildren. In fiction Thou ...

of Luka Adžić.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial

Honours

;Partizan *

First League of FR Yugoslavia The First League of Serbia and Montenegro () was the top football league of Serbia and Montenegro, before the country's dissolution in 2006. The league was formed as the First League of FR Yugoslavia following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992, ef ...

: 1993–94, 1995–96, 2004–05 *

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 ...

: 1993–94 ;Juventus *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

;Fenerbahçe *

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

: 2000–01

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mirkovic, Zoran 1971 births Living people Footballers from Belgrade Men's association football defenders Yugoslav men's footballers Serbia and Montenegro men's footballers Serbia and Montenegro men's international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players FK Radnički Svilajnac players FK Rad players FK Partizan players Atalanta BC players Juventus FC players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Yugoslav First League players First League of Serbia and Montenegro players Serie A players Süper Lig players Serbia and Montenegro expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Serbian football managers FK Partizan managers Serbian SuperLiga managers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Montenegro