Nenad Savić ( sr-cyrl, Ненад Савић; born 28 January 1981) is a

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

n-born

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

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 ...

Career

Early years

Savić's family moved to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

while he was still very young. He started his youth football with local amateur club FC Dietikon and as 12-year-old he moved on to the youth department of

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a professional football club based in Zurich, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League thirteen times and the Swiss Cup ten times. ...

. In 1997 he moved from their U-21 team to the U-21 of

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zurich (GCZ), commonly referred to as Grasshopper Club or simply just GC, is a professional sports club, multisports club based in Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland. They are nicknamed the ''Grasshoppers'' or sometimes just ''Hopper ...

and a year later advanced to their first team for the 1998–99 season. After having two

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

appearances in the first half of the season he moved on to Xamax in the winter break to play the second half of the season, in which he had nine league appearances, with them.

Basel

Savić joined

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

's first team for their 1999–2000 season under their new head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1999 to 2009, winning four Swiss Super Leagues and four Swiss Cups. As ...

. After playing in two test games, Savić played his debut for the club in the 1999 UIC on 11 July. He also scored his first goal for his new team in the same match. It was the team's third goal as Basel won 4–2 against Boby Brno to advance to the next round. He played his domestic league debut for the team in the home game at the

Stadion Schützenmatte Stadion Schützenmatte is a sports stadium with track and field facilities in the Bachletten quartier in Basel, Switzerland. It is the home ground of BSC Old Boys Basel and, together, the Association football pitch, pitch and tennis courts make u ...

on 14 July as Basel played a 1–1 draw with Xamax. He scored his first league goal with the team on 11 September in the away game in the

Stadion Brügglifeld Stadion Brügglifeld is a multi-purpose stadium in Aarau, Switzerland. It is primarily used for football matches and is the home stadium of FC Aarau. The current capacity is 9,249 seats, which include 1499 covered seats. 1,187 covered seats ar ...

as Basel won 3–1 against

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

. Basel started somewhat irregularly into the 2000–01 league season, a number of high scoring games, three victories, three defeats. They then gathered themselves and climbed to the top of the table. However, four defeats in the last five games, through them back to fifth position, at the end of the qualifying stage. Basel were able to play their home games of the championship group in their new stadium, the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

which opened on 15 March 2001 and it was sold out with 33,433 spectators on three occasions. However, in the second half of the season, the team played eight draws in their 14 matches and so ended the season in fourth position. Savić had 22 league appearances, scoring one goal. Savić injured himself before the 2001–02 season and only returned to the playing staff after the winter break. He was then used mainly as substitute. Basel started well into the second part of the season and during this period FCB played their best football, pulling away at the top of the table and subsequently achieved the championship title prematurely. Basel won the last game of the season, on 8 May 2002, and became champions ten points clear at the top of the table. Just four days later they played in the

2001–02 Swiss Cup The 2001–02 Swiss Cup was the 77th season of Switzerland's annual cup competition. It began on 10 August with the first games of Round 1 and ended on 12 May 2002 with the Final held at St. Jakob-Park, Basel. Since Basel also won the 2001–02 Nat ...

final against Grasshopper Club winning 2–1 in extra time, winning the double. Although Savić spent the final on the bench he won his first two titles. Basel's

2002–03 UEFA Champions League The 2002–03 UEFA Champions League was the 11th season of UEFA's premier European club association football, football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since its rebranding in 1992, and the 48th European Cup tournament overall. The competi ...

season started in the second qualifying round. After beating

Žilina Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...

4–1 on aggregate and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

on the away goals rule after a 3–3 aggregate, Basel advanced to the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. But Savić was only given one chance to prove himself. In the 2002–03 league season he was also demoted to becoming a substitute player. In that season's Cup the team advanced to the final and here they beat Xamax 6–0 to defend the title that they had won a season earlier. At the end of that season, the midfielder had come unhappy with his situation as substitute player and so, after four years with the club, he moved on. During his time with them, Savić played a total of 124 games for Basel scoring a total of 14 goals. 70 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, five in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, five in the UEFA competitions ( Champions League,

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 ...

and

UIC UIC may refer to: Computing * Uranium Information Centre, a defunct website sponsored by uranium mining companies * User identification code, the user number of the Files-11 file system in the RSX-11 operating system Education * University of Ill ...

)) and 44 were friendly games. He scored five goals in the domestic league, one in the European games and the other eight were scored during the test games.

Luzern, Wil and Thun

In the summer of 2003 Savić joined

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

, who at that time played in the Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football. But, he was only given five appearances and so in January 2004 he moved on to

FC Wil FC Wil (''Fussball Club Wil 1900'') is a Association football, football club based in Wil, Switzerland. They play in the ''Sportpark Bergholz'', which has a total capacity of 6,048. The club has consistently played in the Swiss Challenge League, ...

, who played top tier. Here he played as regular starter. In the

2003–04 Swiss Cup The 2003–04 Swiss Cup was the 79th season of Switzerland's annual cup competition. It began on 19 September with the first games of Round 1 and ended on 12 April 2004 with the Final held at St. Jakob-Park, Basel. The winners earned a place in the ...

Wil advanced to the final, which was played in the

on 12 April 2004. Surprisingly Wil won this 3–2 against

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

to become Cup winners. However, the club were relegated at the end of the season, but he remained with the club. In January 2005, Savić then moved on, this time to

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss association football, football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League from 2025–26, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, following promotion from the ...

, playing with them for one and a half seasons.

Later years

Savić signed for the Cypriot team

Enosis Neon Paralimni Enosis Neon Paralimni Football Club (, ''Enosi Neon Paralimniou''; ), commonly referred to as ENP, is a Cypriot football team from Paralimni. Currently playing in the first division, it holds home games at the Paralimni Municipal Stadium "Ta ...

for the 2006–07 season. One year later he signed a one-year contract Maccabi Petah Tikva and another year later, in July 2009 a one-year contract with Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona.אחרי ווליאם- גם ננאד סאביץ' חתם בקריית שמונה
(Hebrew) He played a further two years in Israel.

International

Savić was first called up for the Swiss U-21 team in the 2000–01 season and he played his debut on 15 August against the Greece U-21 team. He played 13 times for the team from then until 2014, scoring three goals.

Private life

On 1 March 2012, Savić was convicted of dealing cocaine by a district court in Zurich and given a three-year sentence. Savić appealed. The appeal was partially successful, but he was sentenced to three years, ten months of which conditionally.

Honours

; Basel *

: 2001–02 *

: 2001–02, 2002–03 ; Wil *

: 2003–04 ; Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona * Toto Cup (Leumit): 2009–10

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savic, Nenad 1981 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Serbian emigrants to Switzerland Swiss men's footballers FC Thun players FC Luzern players FC Basel players Grasshopper Club Zurich players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players FC Wil players FC Zürich players Maccabi Petah Tikva F.C. players Maccabi Ironi Jatt F.C. players Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona F.C. players Beitar Tel Aviv Bat Yam F.C. players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Israeli Premier League players Liga Leumit players Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Israel Men's association football midfielders 21st-century Swiss sportsmen