Dejan Savicevic
Dejan Savićević (born September 15, 1966 in Titograd, Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia), is a Montenegrin former football player and the current president of the Montenegro FA. His close control and vision have won him many admirers. For his play for Red Star Belgrade and AC Milan, he is considered one of the great footballers of his time.
Playing career
Born to orthodox parents Vladimir Savićević and Vojislava Đurović, young Dejan had an immediate affinity for football and quickly developed his gift for the game. Savićević began his career when he was 15 years old in the youth teams of OFK Titograd. He played for Budućnost of the Yugoslav First League and earned his first cap for the national side in 1986 against Turkey.
Red Star Belgrade
Following a string of fine performances in Titograd, all of the top teams in Yugoslavia were after 21-year-old Savićević in the summer of 1988. He ended up choosing Red Star Belgrade, and promptly went to serve the mandatory army stint that kept him out of action for the entire 1988/89 season, although the state authorities did allow him to turn up for important matches like the now famous Champions' Cup clash versus AC Milan. He played a prominent part in the first leg at San Siro as Red Star played to a hard fought 1-1 draw with Dragan Stojković scoring the valuable away goal. The return leg in Belgrade was even more eventful as Savićević scored with an excellent strike, but German referee Dieter Pauli stopped and voided the match because of thick fog that engulfed the city. The second leg replay was played the very next day, resulting again in 1-1 scoreline, taking the match to penalties where the Italians came up on top 2-4 as Savićević and Mitar Mrkela failed to convert their spot-kicks.
Savićević helped Red Star win three consecutive national titles - in 1989/90, 1990/91 and 1991/92, two national Cups in 1990 and 1992 as well as a European Cup and a Intercontinental Cup, both in 1991.
In 1991, following Red Star's European success, Savićević came joint second in the voting for the European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or).
AC Milan
Savićević's tremendous close control and vision convinced A.C. Milan to secure his services for the start of 1992/93 season in an attempt at filling the void left by Marco van Basten, handing 26-year-old Dejan the opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to an even wider audience.
However, his first season playing for the Rossoneri was a rather modest affair that saw him play 10 matches and score four goals.
The next season he became a regular, inspiring Milan to a league and European Cup double and was hailed as Il Genio (The Genius) by Silvio Berlusconi, the then president of Milan. His performance in the European Cup final, was his greatest moment in football and arguably one of the finest individual displays seen in the competition. He created the opening goal and scored a spectacular 35 yard half volley in the club's 4-0 victory against Johan Cruijff's FC Barcelona.
Despite the team’s mid-table form in 1995, Savićević lead Milan to their third successive European Cup final that, for him, culminated in a spectacular semi-final versus Paris SG where he scored twice at the San Siro. Despite his brilliant performance against PSG and his statistical importance to the team in 1995, he did not play in the 1995 European Cup Final due to 'injury', even though Savićević insisted he was fit. In the final, Milan created few opportunities and ultimately lost to Ajax 1-0. In his total career at the San Siro, Milan won 7 trophies, including 3 scudetti (Serie A championships) - 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1 European Cup - 1993-94 and 1 European Super Cup, but he was criticized in the Italian media for not always trying against smaller teams and his performances regularly blew hot and cold.
Coaching career
Savićević's two-year spell as coach of the national side was a polar opposite of his distinguished playing career.
Immediately after retiring in May 2001, he was named as coach of the FR Yugoslavia / Serbia-Montenegro national squad, in succession to the short, and tempestuous 3-month tenure of Milovan Đorić. Despite Savićević's complete lack of any relevant coaching experience, and the side's already faint chances of progressing from the World Cup 2002 qualifying tournament, the announcement of his appointment was generally well received by the public. His appointment came as part of the general changing of the guard in the Yugoslav FA with Dragan Stojković (Savićević's good personal friend) taking over as the FA president.
At first, Savićević was part of a 3-man coaching commission with the experienced Vujadin Boškov and Ivan Ćurković by his side, but took over the duties all by himself by December 2001. At the time, he claimed to have taken the solo job on temporary basis only, since Dušan Bajević rejected it. Savićević also intimated the new permanent coach would take over by the summer of 2002. However, that did not happen and he remained in post until June 2003. Throughout his reign, he failed to achieve a settled team, and his personal disputes with Mateja Kežman precipitated the striker to temporarily retire from international football. Savićević finally resigned in June 2003 after a humiliating 1-2 defeat to Azerbaijan in a Euro 2004 qualifier, which was also the team's fifth defeat in a row. His overall managerial record was 4 wins, 11 losses, and 2 draws, in addition to 4 wins, 2 losses, and 2 ties as part of the commission.
