Vladan Lukić ( sr-Cyrl, Владан Лукић; born 16 February 1970) 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 striker. At international level, he made appearances 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 ...

and

FR Yugoslavia 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 ...

Playing career

After arrival to

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 ...

from hometown Sopot, Lukić entered first team and immediately showed scoring abilities. He also had a good start with

national team, but his luck turned around in 1991 in a match against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, when he broke his leg in a collision with teammate Siniša Mihajlović. Lukić returned to football eventually, but never reached his full potential as a player. He had top performances in the 1996–97 season, when he won the Swiss Football League with

FC Sion Football Club Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss Association football, football club from the city of Sion, Switzerland, Sion. The club was founded in 1909 and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have wo ...

. The following year, he finished second placed in French Ligue 1 with

FC Metz Football Club de Metz () is a Football in France, French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 1, the highest division in the French football league system, for the 2025–26 Ligue 1, ...

. He left the French club in protest against the

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Serbia and Montenegro, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombing ...

and returned to his native Sopot where he joined the Yugoslav Army.

Administrative career

After retiring from playing Lukić returned to his hometown and became the chairman of FK Sopot who were competing in the

Serbian League Belgrade Serbian League Belgrade ( Serbian: Српска лига Београд / Srpska liga Beograd) is one of four sections of the Serbian League, the third tier of professional football in Serbia. The other three sections are Serbian League East, Se ...

, which is the third tier of the Serbian football pyramid.

Red Star Belgrade president

On 26 May 2009, Lukić became president of

, replacing previous club president Dan Tana, whilst the club were experiencing major financial difficulties with their account blocked due to reported debt of €23 million. Along with Lukić, another former Red Star player came back to the club in administrative role— Ivan Adžić became the club's new sporting director. From the very beginning Lukić's tenure at the club was accompanied with rumours that Red Star's éminence grise Goran Vesić (also Democratic Party's prominent member and longtime political operative) is the real decision maker within the club. Lukić's first official order of business was hiring new head coach Vladimir "Pižon" Petrović in early June 2009. In November 2009, public prosecutor's office demanded for Lukić to be prohibited from performing the function of the president of Red Star Belgrade and fined due to his alleged support to hooligans. In December 2009, at the

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League (), also known as Mozzart SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Serbia and the highest level of the Serbian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a sys ...

winter break, Red Star led the standings with three points ahead of eternal rivals FK Partizan. At the same time, Lukić announced that over his seven months in charge, the club managed to lower its debt by €6 million. Soon after the league restart, Lukić fired head coach Petrović despite Red Star still leading the league by three points, replacing him with club's youth system coach Ratko Dostanić. The coaching change did not produce the desired effect as the club not only failed to add to its lead at the top of the table, but instead lost its points advantage over Partizan. The league title was decided on 8 May at the Eternal Derby with Partizan winning the controversial match 1–0 at JNA Stadium on a long-range goal by Raća Petrović. During the summer 2010 off-season, Lukić struck a sponsorship deal with Russian oil company Gazprom Neft. The terms of the five-year deal between two parties were not disclosed. By late November 2011, information appeared in '' Sportski žurnal'' sports daily that Red Star's debt again swelled up to €42.6 million, which the club's general secretary Đorđe Stefanović vehemently denied, saying that the club's operational debt is between €25–33 million. On 13 November 2012, Lukić resigned his post as club president. He was temporarily replaced by the so-called "working group" (also known as 'stabilization commission')—formed on the initiative by deputy prime minister

Aleksandar Vučić Aleksandar Vučić, (born 5 March 1970) is a Serbian politician serving as President of Serbia since 2017. A founding member of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), he previously served as President of the SNS from 2012 to 2023, Deputy Prim ...

and headed by

Nebojša Čović Nebojša Čović ( sr-Cyrl, Небојша Човић; born 2 July 1958) is a Serbian businessman, basketball executive, and politician. Since 2011, he has been serving as the president of . Early years and education Čović was born in Belgrad ...

—whose goal was to determine and assess the club's financial situation as well as to organize the elections for club's new president. In mid-December 2012, Dragan Džajić was elected club president (he was the only candidate after Branko Tekić's bid got rejected) while Čović's working group announced its findings of the club's financial analysis from 1996 until 2012 – pertaining to Lukić's tenure as club president, when he took over in late May 2009 the club debt was reported to be €22,398,806 and reportedly grew to €44,109,565 by November 2012 when Lukić left.

Honours

Player

FC Sion * Swiss Championship: 1996–97 *

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 ...

: 1996–97 Red Star Belgrade *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

: 1990–91

Notes

References

External links