Milenko "Mile" Ačimovič (; ; born 15 February 1977) is a Slovenian former 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

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 boundarie ...

. Besides Slovenia, he has played in FR Yugoslavia, England, France, Saudi Arabia, and Austria.

Club career

Born to Serbian parents in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, Ačimovič started his career in the youth ranks of Železničar Ljubljana. He made four first division appearances for Železničar when he was 18 years old. From 1996 until 1998 he scored seven league goals in 36 matches for Olimpija. He then 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 ...

, where he played for four and a half years. After successful appearances for the Slovenian national team in

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 ...

and

World Cup 2002 The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

, several bigger European clubs expressed interest in him. In the summer of 2002, he joined

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. In his first season in London, he made a few appearances, but never established himself as a first team player. In his second season, he became a fringe player. In January 2004 he joined the French club

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

on loan until the end of the season. When he arrived, the club was in 14th place in the Ligue 1, but Ačimovič contributed to an eventual second-place finish, enough to qualify for the Champions League. Also, in his first year at Lille, he was part of the team's

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

campaign, when Lille reached the last sixteen before being eliminated. The following year, he played in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, when Lille reached the group stages. Ačimovič scored Lille's only goal of the campaign against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in Lille's 1-0 victory in Paris. After two-and one-half seasons in Lille, he fell out of favour and joined

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

for the 2006–07 season. After failing to adapt to life in Saudi Arabia, he agreed on a mutual termination of the contract, subsequently moving back to Europe to join Austria Wien. On 15 September 2010, his ended his football career following a persistent right knee injury. Ačimovič returned to Slovenia and was appointed the Director of football at Olimpija Ljubljana, in January 2011, where he stayed until September 2012 when he resigned his position, due to poor results of the team in the

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga ( sl, Prva slovenska nogometna liga, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Football in Slovenia, Slovenian football league system. ...

International career

He debuted for the Slovenia national team on 22 April 1998 in

Murska Sobota Murska Sobota (, Slovenian abbreviation: ''MS'' ; german: Olsnitz;''Radkersburg und Luttenberg'' (map, 1:75,000). 1894. Vienna: K.u.k. Militärgeographisches Institut. hu, Muraszombat) is a town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the centre of the ...

against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. During the first leg of the UEFA Euro 2000 qualifiers against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, he scored a winning goal from near the halfway line, helping his team to qualify for their first ever major tournament. At the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, Ačimovič scored in Slovenia's 3–1 defeat to

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Seogwipo Seogwipo () is the second-largest city on Jeju Island, settled on a rocky volcanic coastline in the southern part of Jeju Province, South Korea. In July 2006, Seogwipo's boundaries were expanded to include the entire southern half of Jeju island. ...

. His final appearance for the national side came on 28 March 2007 in

Celje ) , pushpin_map = Slovenia , pushpin_label_position = left , pushpin_map_caption = Location of the city of Celje in Slovenia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Cou ...

, during a 1–0 home defeat to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in a Euro 2008 qualification match. He announced his retirement from international football that August.

Honours

Lille *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

: 2004

References

External links

NZS profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Acimovic, Milenko Living people 1977 births Footballers from Ljubljana Slovenian people of Serbian descent Slovenian expatriate footballers Slovenian footballers Association football midfielders Association football wingers NK Ljubljana players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) players Red Star Belgrade footballers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Lille OSC players Ittihad FC players FK Austria Wien players Expatriate footballers in Serbia and Montenegro Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate footballers in Austria Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia and Montenegro Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in England Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in France Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Slovenian PrvaLiga players Slovenian Second League players Premier League players Ligue 1 players Saudi Professional League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Slovenia youth international footballers Slovenia under-21 international footballers Slovenia international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Slovenian football managers

Club career

International career

Honours

See also

References

External links