Darko Kovačević ( sr-Cyrl, Дарко Ковачевић; born 18 November 1973) is a Serbian 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 lea ...

who played as a forward. Kovačević began his career in his native country with Proleter Zrenjanin and subsequently played for

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 ...

, with whom he won a Yugoslav League title and two Yugoslav Cups. His prolific performances earned him a move to

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

side

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

, although his time in England was less successful. He is mainly known for his spells at

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

, where his offensive partnership with Nihat Kahveci was one of the best in Spain. Kovačević also had positive spells with Italian club

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 ...

and Greek side

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

. Internationally, Kovačević represented

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

at 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 ...

and at the

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 was ...

Club career

Proleter and Red Star Belgrade

Beginning his career with his hometown club Radnički Kovin, he was soon spotted by

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; ; ; ; ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has a population of 67,129 inh ...

-based top league club Proleter Zrenjanin. Spending two seasons with the club, Kovačević managed over a goal every other game, was signed by Serbian giants

. Kovačević won a Yugoslav League title and two Yugoslav Cups, earning a call-up to the Yugoslavia national team.

Sheffield Wednesday

Kovačević was then signed by

club

in December 1995, valued at £2.5m in a joint £4.5m transfer also involving Dejan Stefanovic. Kovačević's notable goals for The Owls were two against Bolton Wanderers at Hillsborough and an important finish versus Liverpool, also at home. Kovačević played the remainder of the 1995/96 season, but his failure to adapt and settle into the UK way of life prompted a bid of £2.5m from Real Sociedad to be accepted. A sell-on clause in the transfer agreement ensured Sheffield Wednesday received a further £2.0m (taking the transfer to £4.5m) when Real Sociedad later sold him to Juventus.

Real Sociedad

Kovačević moved to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

in 1996. Larger clubs soon came calling, with Italian giants

acquiring the big Serbian in the summer of 1999 for 33 billion lire (£12 million).

Juventus and Lazio

At Juventus, Kovačević found goals in both the

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 ...

and competitions such as the

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 ...

and

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

becoming their leading European goal scorer, and the top-scorer of the UEFA Cup during the 1999–2000 season, with 10 goals; despite facing competition from the club's starting attacking partnership of

Filippo Inzaghi Filippo "Pippo" Inzaghi (; born 9 August 1973) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who played as a striker. He was most recently the head coach of club Pisa. He was nicknamed "Superpippo" (" Super Goof") or "Alta ten ...

and

Alessandro Del Piero Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit for ...

, Kovačević made a total of 44 appearances in all competitions in his first season with the club (27 in

, 3 in the

Coppa Italia 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 ...

, and 11 in European competitions), scoring 21 goals in all competitions (eight in Serie A, two in the Coppa Italia, and 11 in European competitions, one of which came in Juventus's victorious

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 ...

campaign, which enabled them to qualify for the UEFA Cup). The following season, due to the arrival of French striker

David Trezeguet David Sergio Trezeguet (, ; born 15 October 1977) is a French former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Trezeguet began his career in Argentina with Club Atlético Platense at ...

, Kovačević found less space in the squad under manager

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 ...

, making 27 appearances in all competitions (20 of which came in Serie A), mostly from the bench, and scoring only six goals (five in Serie A). The Juventus management felt Kovačević was underachieving and soon both parties were looking for a move out of Italy, with clubs such as Rangers willing to offer £12m for his transfer. In 2001, Kovačević spent a brief time with

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

(as part-swap deal with

Marcelo Salas José Marcelo Salas Melinao (; born 24 December 1974), nicknamed ''Bullfighter, Matador'' (due to his Goal celebration, goalscoring celebrations), ''El Fenómeno'' and ''Shileno'', is a Chilean former association football, footballer who play ...

), making only seven appearances, before moving back to Spain in the middle of the season.

Return to Real Sociedad

In 2001, Kovačević returned to Real Sociedad, where he spent six more seasons at the club, netting 51 goals in his second spell with Sociedad. The 2006–07 season would be Kovačević's last season with the Spanish side, ending in the club's

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

. Alongside Jesús María Satrústegui, Kovačević is Real Sociedad's all-time top goalscorer in European club competitions, with 10 goals. Kovačević scored 107 goals in his stages with

in nine seasons, with a total average of between eleven and twelve goals per season. They are only surpassed by Jesús María Satrústegui and López Ufarte in the txuri-urdin team. He is the most efficient foreigner that Real Sociedad has had in all its years of existence.

Olympiacos

In 2007, Kovačević signed with

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

champions

. In early 2009, he was diagnosed with a blocked

artery An artery () is a blood vessel in humans and most other animals that takes oxygenated blood away from the heart in the systemic circulation to one or more parts of the body. Exceptions that carry deoxygenated blood are the pulmonary arteries in ...

; he successfully underwent heart surgery to improve the flow of blood to his heart. His doctors advised to retire from football, and Kovačević officially retired in May 2009, playing a final friendly match for Olympiacos to celebrate the winning of the Greek domestic double. With Olympiacos, Kovačević won two Greek SuperLeague titles, two Greek Cups and a Greek Super Cup.

International career

On the national level, Kovačević made his debut for

Serbia and Montenegro The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...

in a December 1994

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

away against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute for

Predrag Mijatović Predrag Mijatović ( sr-cyrl, Предраг Мијатовић; born 19 January 1969) is a Montenegrin Association football, football administrator and former player who played as a Striker (association football), striker. At club level, Mijato ...

, and earned a total of 59 caps, scoring 10 goals. He would go on to compete in both

and the

. His final international was a March 2004 friendly against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Style of play

A quick and powerful striker, with good movement, technique, and an eye for goal, Kovačević's key attributes were his strength and aerial ability.

After retirement

After his retirement, Kovačević stated that he may take another role at his former team Olympiacos. Kovačević and his family subsequently returned to Spain. However, Kovačević returned to Greece, as he loved the country and worked for several months as a columnist. In June 2010, the new president of Olympiacos, Evangelos Marinakis, hired Kovačević as a chief scout; he eventually become the sports director for the club. He remained in that position until 2018. He is the current sports director of the Serbian Football Association.

Personal life

Kovačević has three children, Mia, Darko (Jr.) and Stella.

Career statistics

Club

International

*''Includes caps for FR Yugoslavia (1994–2002) and Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2004)'' :''Scores and results list FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kovačević goal''.

Honours

Red Star Belgrade *

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 ...

: 1994–95 *

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 ...

: 1994–95, 1995–96 Juventus *

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 ...

Olympiacos *

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

: 2007–08, 2008–09 *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 2007–08, 2008–09 *

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup (), formerly known as the Friendship and Solidarity Cup () is a Greek association football one-match competition, which is contested annually either between the champions of the previous Super League Greece season and the hold ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Individual *

top scorer: 1998–99 (8 goals), 1999–2000 (10 goals) * Super League Greece Best Foreign Player: 2007–08

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kovacevic, Darko 1973 births Living people People from Kovin Footballers from South Banat District Men's association football forwards Serbia and Montenegro men's footballers Serbia and Montenegro men's international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players Serbian men's footballers FK Proleter Zrenjanin players Red Star Belgrade footballers Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Real Sociedad footballers Juventus FC players SS Lazio players Olympiacos F.C. players First League of Serbia and Montenegro players Premier League players La Liga players Serie A players Super League Greece players Serbia and Montenegro expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Italy Serbian expatriate men's footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Greece People named in the Panama Papers