Jovica "Jovo" Simanić (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

: Јовица "Јово" Симанић; born 8 August 1965) 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 lea ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Football career

Born in

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 ...

in the

Socialist Federal Republic of 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 ...

, Simanić started and ended his 11-year professional career with hometown club

FK Proleter Zrenjanin FK Proleter Zrenjanin () is a defunct football club based in Zrenjanin, Vojvodina, Serbia. History The club was founded on 27 June 1947 by the merger of three local rivals. Their first notable result was reaching the quarter-finals of the 1951 ...

, scoring 16 goals, but also played abroad in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. In January 1992, he joined

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

, appearing almost exclusively for the reserve team. On 30 September 1992, in his only appearance for the main squad, a

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 ...

play-off match against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

, he was introduced in the last minutes of the 1–4 away loss by manager

Christoph Daum Christoph Paul Daum (24 October 1953 – 24 August 2024) was a German professional Association football, football manager and player. As a manager, he won eight trophies with clubs from Germany, Turkey and Austria. In 1992, he won the Bundesliga ...

, causing Stuttgart to play with one foreign player too many; the Germans would have won on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

but, after being punished with a 0–3 defeat instead, the two teams had to play a third match, which ended 2–1 for the English side. Simanić then represented

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

, being called to the bench twice and Boavista in six

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

games, after which he competed in the country's

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

(

F.C. Famalicão Futebol Clube de Famalicão, commonly known as Famalicão, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club from Vila Nova de Famalicão. Founded on 21 August 1931, its senior team currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top tie ...

) and third divisions for A.D. Ovarense. He returned to his country aged 32 and played for Proleter, retiring from football three years later.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simanic, Jovo 1965 births Living people Footballers from Zrenjanin Men's association football central defenders Yugoslav men's footballers Serbia and Montenegro men's footballers FK Proleter Zrenjanin players VfB Stuttgart II players VfB Stuttgart players S.L. Benfica footballers Boavista F.C. players F.C. Famalicão players A.D. Ovarense players Yugoslav First League players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players First League of Serbia and Montenegro players Serbia and Montenegro expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Serbia and Montenegro expatriate sportspeople in Portugal