Dragoje Leković ( sr-Cyrl, Драгоје Лековић, ; born 21 November 1967) is a retired 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Leković was born in

Sivac Sivac () is a village located in the municipality of Kula, Serbia, Kula, Serbia. The village has a Serb ethnic majority with a sizable Montenegrins of Serbia, Montenegrin minority, with its population numbering 6,950 inhabitants (as of 2022 censu ...

SR Serbia The Socialist Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Социјалистичка Република Србија, Socijalistička Republika Srbija), previously known as the People's Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / " ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. In Yugoslavia, he played mainly for

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First League ( Bosnian: Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, sr-Cyrl-Latn, Прва савезна лига у фудбалу, Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, , , , , ) was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ...

club FK Budućnost Titograd and also spent one season with the well known club,

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 ...

. Leković played in 17 of 30 matches in the

1991–92 Yugoslav First League The First League of Yugoslavia's 1991/1992 season was the 64th edition of the Yugoslav First League, the premier football club competition of SFR Yugoslavia. It was the last edition in which professional football teams from SR Bosnia and Herzegov ...

and also started both legs of the

1991–92 Yugoslav Cup The 1991–92 Football Cup of Yugoslavia was the national knock-out football competition in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was held during the breakup of the state. The republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared their indep ...

finals, losing out to

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; ), often referred to in English as Partizan Belgrade, is a Serbian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Belgrade. It forms ...

. After 18 months with modest club

FK Mogren FK Mogren was a football club based in Budva, Montenegro. Founded in 1920, it was two times champion of Montenegrin First League and once winner of Montenegrin Cup. In 2015, following the bankruptcy and debts, FK Mogren was relegated to the lowes ...

and a brief comeback spell at Budućnost, Leković joined

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

in Scotland in fall 1994, where he was the first choice goalkeeper during his spell and was part of the squad that won the 1997 Scottish Cup versus

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

Ibrox Stadium Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Scottish Premiership team Rangers, Ibrox is the third-largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated ca ...

. with the only goal of the game scored in the 20th minute by Paul Wright. In January 1998, Leković started an unassuming stint in Spain, where he experienced

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 ...

from

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 ...

and

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

from the Second Division respectively with

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

and

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

but was only second-choice goalkeeper at both clubs. Leković closed out his career at the age of 36 after playing for

AEK Larnaca AEK Larnaca FC (, "Athletic Union Kition (ancient state), Kition of Larnaca") is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional association football, football club based in Larnaca. The club was formed in 1994 after a merger of two historical Larnaca clubs, EP ...

International career

Leković gained 14

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 Java ...

for

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 ...

with his debut on 27 April 1988 resulting in a 2-0 friendly defeat to

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

. Lekovic was in the country's final roster for two

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

but did not see a single minute of action at either tournament as he was the third choice goalkeeper. He was also called to

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having been inv ...

, but the nation would be suspended due to the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. Previously, Leković was a member of the highly talented Yugoslavia under-20 team that won the

1987 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Chile from 10 to 25 October 1987. The 1987 championship was the 6th edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship and won for the first time by Yugoslavia. Remarkably, in the course of the tourn ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, playing all the games in the tournament.

Career statistics

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lekovic, Dragoje 1967 births Living people People from Kula, Serbia Footballers from West Bačka District Men's association football goalkeepers Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's under-21 international footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Yugoslavia Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1990 FIFA World Cup players Serbia and Montenegro men's footballers Serbia and Montenegro men's international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players FK Budućnost Podgorica players Red Star Belgrade footballers FK Mogren players Kilmarnock F.C. players Sporting de Gijón players Málaga CF players AEK Larnaca FC players Yugoslav First League players First League of Serbia and Montenegro players Scottish Football League players La Liga players Segunda División players Cypriot First Division players Serbia and Montenegro expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Montenegro Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar