Goran Đorović ( sr-Cyrl, Горан Ђopoвић; born 11 November 1971) is a Serbian retired

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 mainly a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

but also as a left back. In his country, he played for

Prishtina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians and ...

and Red Star. He spent the rest of his career in Spain after arriving there in 1997, representing Celta, Deportivo and

Elche Elche ( ca-valencia, Elx) is a city and municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2014 data, Elche has a population of 228,647 inhabitants,manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

of the Serbian national under-21 team.

Club career

Đorović was born in

Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians an ...

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

. Having initially played for his hometown club

FK Priština Football Club Prishtina ( sq, Klubi Futbollistik Prishtina, ; sr, Фудбалски клуб Приштина, Fudbalski klub Priština), commonly known as Prishtina, is a professional football club based in Prishtina, Kosovo. The club play i ...

, he joined

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 1993. He went on to appear in exactly 100 league matches and, aged almost 26, moved abroad after signing with Spanish club RC Celta de Vigo. Soon, interest arose from major teams, such as

U.C. Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

and Arsenal. However, he decided to stay at least for the 1998–99 season at Celta, where he would eventually share teams with his brother Zoran (who had absolutely no impact for the

Galicians Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance la ...

) and play 126 competitive games, his

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' ...

debut coming on 31 August 1997 in a 2–1 home win against

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

. Having had one attempt to sign the player previously rebuffed,

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

manager

Javier Irureta Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano (born 1 April 1948), Irureta for short, is a Spanish retired football attacking midfielder and manager. He had a distinguished playing career with Atlético Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, playing in 344 La Liga ga ...

signed Đorović in 2001, having already bought him from Red Star four years earlier. However, the player's career at ''Depor'' would be constantly marred by injuries as he earned over

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

2 million per season, one of the highest in the squad. For 2003–04, Đorović was loaned alongside Dani Mallo, Roberto Acuña and José Manuel, to

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Elx Club de Futbol, S.A.D.) is a professional football based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1923, the club competes in La Liga, holding home matches at ''Es ...

in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. After featuring rarely throughout the campaign he returned to Deportivo, and was immediately released despite still having one year in his contract. He retired shortly after.

International career

Đorović made his debut for the Serbia and Montenegro national team on 23 December 1994, playing the second half of a 0–2 friendly loss in

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 ...

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the twelfth most populous city in the country and the center of Brazil's fif ...

. He won 48

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

more in the next seven years, being part of the setups at the 1998 FIFA World Cup (playing in all the matches and minutes during the tournament, as the nation bowed out in the round-of-16) and

UEFA 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 wa ...

International statistics

Managerial statistics

References

External links

*
Celta de Vigo biography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorovic, Goran 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Pristina Kosovo Serbs Serbian twins Twin sportspeople Yugoslav footballers Serbian footballers Association football defenders Yugoslav First League players FC Prishtina players Red Star Belgrade footballers La Liga players Segunda División players RC Celta de Vigo players Deportivo de La Coruña players Elche CF players Serbia and Montenegro international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players Serbia and Montenegro expatriate footballers Serbia and Montenegro footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Spain Serbian football managers Serbia national under-21 football team managers