Milan Rajlić (16 October 1916 – 10 May 1952) was a Yugoslav 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 ...

and

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

Club career

Born in

Travnik Travnik ( cyrl, Травник) is a town and a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the administrative center of the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

, Rajlić started his

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

career in the youth team of

Rudar Prijedor Fudbalski klub Rudar Prijedor (Serbian Cyrillic: Фудбалски клуб Pудаp Пpиjeдop) is a professional football club from the city of Prijedor that is situated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rudar plays in the Premier League of Bosnia ...

in 1931. In 1933, he started playing for the youth team of

Slavija Sarajevo Fudbalski klub Slavija Sarajevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Фудбалски клуб Славија Сарајево) is a professional association football club from the city of Istočno Sarajevo, Republika Srpska that is situated in Bosnia and Herzeg ...

, before getting called up to the first team of Slavija in 1935. Rajlić made 84 league appearances for Slavija and scored 41 goals. In 1941,

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

came to

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, and he continued to play football in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

with

SK Jugoslavija Sportski klub Jugoslavija ( sr-Cyrl, Cпортски клуб Југославија), commonly known as Jugoslavija, was a Serbian football club based in Belgrade. It was originally formed as SK Velika Srbija in 1913 and changed its name to SK Ju ...

, later joining Sloga Kraljevo in 1943 in the

Serbian League The Serbian League () is the third level football league in Serbia. It consists of four groups, namely Belgrade, East, Vojvodina, and West. The winner of each group earns promotion to the Serbian First League. History 1992–1995 In the summer o ...

. Since Slavija Sarajevo got dissolved by the new communist authorities after the war, Rajlić got assigned to Željezničar. He was a player and a manager at the same time from 1945 to 1947. He appeared in 18 league matches for Željezničar, scoring 5 goals in the two seasons. In 1947, Rajlić was ordered by communist authorities to join newly founded

, for which he played until 1949. In total, he turned out in 18 league matches and scored 11 goals for the club. Not satisfied with being constantly moved around by authorities in Sarajevo, Rajlić relocated to

Kraljevo Kraljevo ( sr-Cyrl, Краљево, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Raška District in central Serbia. It is situated on the confluence of West Morava and Ibar River, Ibar, in the geographical region of ...

that same year, coming back to Sloga Kraljevo. He played for Sloga until his early death in 1952.

International career

On 22 September 1940, Rajlić made his first and only appearance for the Yugoslavia national team against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Managerial career

In 1945, Rajlić decided to become a professional

while still playing. In the summer of 1945, he signed a contract with Željezničar, becoming the new player-manager of the club. He guided the club to the 1946 Bosnian Republic League title. In 1949, Rajlić continued his player-manager duties at Sloga Kraljevo after joining the club. He stayed at Sloga until his early death in 1952.

Death and memorial

Rajlić died on 10 May 1952 at the age of 35 in

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 ...

. Before 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 ...

which happened during the 1990s, Rajlić's former club Sloga Kraljevo used to organize an annual tournament named after him. Regular participants were Sloga,

and Željezničar, all of them his former clubs.

Career statistics

International

Honours

Player

SK Jugoslavija *

: 1941–42 Željezničar * Bosnian Republic League: 1946 Sarajevo *

Yugoslav Second League Yugoslav Second League ( Bosnian: ''Druga savezna liga,'' Croatian: ''Druga savezna liga'', Serbian: ''Друга савезна лига'', Slovenian: ''Druga zvezna liga'', Macedonian: ''Втора сојузна лига'', ''Vtora sojuzna l ...

: 1948–49

Manager

Željezničar * Bosnian Republic League: 1946

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajlic, Milan 1916 births 1952 deaths Sportspeople from Travnik Footballers from Central Bosnia Canton People from the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Men's association football forwards Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers FK Slavija Sarajevo players SK Jugoslavija players FK Sloga Kraljevo players FK Željezničar Sarajevo players FK Sarajevo players Yugoslav First League players Yugoslav Second League players Yugoslav football managers FK Željezničar Sarajevo managers FK Sloga Kraljevo managers Yugoslav First League managers