Dragan Ćirić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Ћирић; born 15 September 1974) 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 retired professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder for Partizan,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

, and Real Valladolid. Internationally, he played for the national team of Yugoslavia, earning 4 caps.

Club career

Early career

After starting out at local club Srem Jakovo, Belgrade-born Ćirić finished his development at Partizan, sharing teams with the likes of

Savo Milošević Savo Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Саво Милошевић, ; born 2 September 1973) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player. A former forward, he signed for English club Aston Villa after making a name for himself at Partiza ...

and Albert Nađ. This trio was promoted to the senior squad in

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

, as they won the league in that and the following seasons under manager Ljubiša Tumbaković. Ćirić conquered a further two national championships during his first spell and was the team's captain in the 1996–97 season.

Barcelona

In July 1997, Ćirić signed a four-year contract with

. Over the course of his career at Barcelona, he played 35 games across all competitions in his debut season. In addition into featuring in Barcelona's

1997–98 UEFA Champions League The 1997–98 UEFA Champions League was the 43rd season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier club football tournament, and the sixth since its re-branding from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The tournament was won by ...

campaign, he also contributed to the team's treble conquest of

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

, Copa del Rey and the UEFA Super Cup. Coach

Louis van Gaal Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (; born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former football player and manager. At club level, he served as manager of Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, as well as having three spe ...

employed Ćirić primarily as a right-winger, although it was not his best position. After losing his spot in the lineup he was loaned to Greek side

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

-long move, scoring in double digits and also winning the domestic cup. Upon his return to the Camp Nou, he was sold to fellow Spaniards Real Valladolid in July 2000.

Return to Partizan

In June 2004, Ćirić returned to Partizan, signing a three-year contract. Under coach Vladimir Vermezović, he helped the club win the national league in his comeback season with an unbeaten record. He also played in Partizan's historic

2004–05 UEFA Cup The 2004–05 UEFA Cup was the 34th edition of the UEFA Cup. The format of the competition had changed from previous seasons, replacing that from the previous one after the abolition of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1999; an extra qualifying round was ...

campaign, up to their elimination in the final 16 by

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet era, it was a central piece of the big So ...

. After that season, he retired shortly after at the age of 31.

International career

Ćirić was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

four times for

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

. He made his debut in a 4–1 friendly win against El Salvador on 12 November 1995, coming on as a substitute for Dejan Petković.

Administrative career

In December 2014, Ćirić was named

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

at Partizan. He left the position less than two months later, citing dissatisfaction with the state of Serbian football as the main reason for his decision.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

;Partizan *

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 ...

, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 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 ;Barcelona *

: 1997–98, 1998–99 * Copa del Rey: 1997–98 * UEFA Super Cup: 1997 ;AEK Athens *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most ...

: 1999–2000

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciric, Dragan 1974 births Living people Footballers from Belgrade Serbian footballers Association football midfielders Yugoslav First League players FK Partizan players La Liga players FC Barcelona players Real Valladolid players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Serbia and Montenegro international footballers Serbia and Montenegro expatriate footballers Serbia and Montenegro footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Greece Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Spain Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Greece FK Partizan non-playing staff