11 Best Serbian Soccer Players of All Time

Serbia is relatively small country with only slightly above 7 million inhabitants currently, and one might think that it would be fairly easy to select 11 best Serbian soccer players of all time.

Things, however, are rarely that simple, and recent U-20 World Cup in New Zealand which Serbian national team had won, is the best argument in defense of this statement. This clearly shows that soccer or football if you will, has some strong roots in the small country of only 34,116 square miles.

Most of the players who are featured on this list have spent some part of their respective careers in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. If you ever manage to find yourself in this part of the world, don’t miss the chance to check out 11 best restaurants in Belgrade, Serbia. But I digress. Let me get back to the topic at hand. In order to understand some of our choices, you first have to understand the history of Serbian national team and its federation.

Serbia’s Football Association was established on April 18th 1919, but at that time, it was the FA of The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which would, in half a year become The Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia, being a multicultural entity, had consisted of 6 republics (including Serbia) and great number of nationalities. Since we are talking about Serbian players exclusively, you won’t find the likes of Predrag Mijatović, Davor Šuker, Robert Prosinečki, Zvonimir Boban, Dejan Savićević, Safet Sušić, Srečko Katanec, Stjepan Bobek, Zlatko Čajkovski, Branislav Zebec, Josip Katalinski, Darko Pančev and many others on this list. Still, Serbian soccer players portfolio is deep enough by itself, and you will likely recognize most of these players.

Now, everyone has their own favorite player in mind when looking at these types of lists. This is yet another reason why it’s hard to compile the given list, and why there’s no place for subjective opinions. All players have been selected based on strictly chosen criteria which consists of both relevant experts’ opinion and the relevant data. Data consists of players’ career stats with most relevant points of emphasis being in accordance with their respective positions e.g. goals for strikers and clean sheets for goalkeepers. Career honors have also been taken into account, but so have been the league and club quality in which the respective player had performed. After all, it’s harder to achieve something if you play in a weaker club; wouldn’t you agree? Without further ado, let us get on our way to the list of 11 best Serbian soccer players of all time.

11. Dragan Stojković

Born on March 3, 1965, Piksi has played both central and attacking midfielder during the course of his career. He has played for Radnički football club from his city of birth Niš, and for Red Star Belgrade before going abroad and playing for Olympique Marseille in France and Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan. It is Japan where he has achieved a cult status being one of the best players that have ever earned their bread by playing soccer in the land of the rising sun. He has even earned Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class from the Japanese government. Even though he has won the UEFA Champions League in 1993 with Marseille, he will always be haunted by the missed opportunity to win it with Red Star in 1991. Destiny has played a prank on him during the winter break that season when he moved away from the Red Star which will later win the title. To make things even worse, Serbian club had beaten Marseille; no less, and Dragan Stojković had found himself on the wrong side of the pitch.

10. Aleksandar Tirnanić

Aleksandar Tirnanić was born on July 15, 1910 which makes him one of the oldest players on the list and one of the first true great players from Serbia. He had witnessed both the rise of soccer’s popularity as a game in Serbia and the establishment of the FIFA World Cup as a competition, having appeared in first ever World Cup in Uruguay. Being only 20 years old at the time, he was the original youngest World Cup scorer and currently holds the sixth position after almost a full century. He spent his entire career in Belgrade having made 500 appearances over the course of 10 years for best Serbian club at the time – BSK.

9. Nemanja Vidić

Serbian rock is the only active player on this list, but his career seems to be going in the wrong direction and ultimately to a closing stage. Needless to say, he is also the youngest player on the list, being born on October 21, 1981. He is best known for his 8-year spell in Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson where he has earned the skipper’s armband thanks to his stalwart defending skills and exceptional commitment in every game. That’s where he has won 5 Premier League titles and UEFA Champions League during the 2007/08 campaign. He is currently playing for Internazionale Milan and these might be his last seasons in top flight clubs and leagues.

8. Velibor Vasović

Defender is the only player on the list which had featured for both Belgrade arch rivals: Partizan and Red Star. However, his Red Star career was short-lived and mostly came as a rebellion against his peers in Partizan. After only six months in neighbors’ camp, Vasović had completed his comeback to Partizan and led the team to their first and only Champions Cup (today’s UEFA Champions League) final where they had fallen behind two goals to one to Real Madrid. Vasović’s consolation was the fact that he had scored the only goal for his team. He moved on the next season becoming the first foreign player to be appointed captain in AFC Ajax. That’s where he has managed to finally win the Champions Cup trophy in 1971.

7. Vladimir Beara

Beara is considered as one of the best goalkeepers in the history of the game. He certainly is the best Serbian goalkeeper of all times, and Lev Yashin’s quote: “I am not the best goalkeeper in the world, it is Vladimir Beara.”, says a lot about his skills. He has won seven Yugoslav League titles during the course of his career and has the silver medal from the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland with the Yugoslav national team.

6. Dejan Stanković

Born on September 11, 1978, Stanković went on to become Red Star’s youngest skipper ever at the age of only 19. He soon moved away to Italian side Lazio SS and despite having a number of prominent competitors in the likes of Pavel Nedvěd, Juan Sebastián Verón and Diego Simeone, Serbian midfielder has managed to establish himself as irreplaceable part of the future Italian and Cup Winners’ Cup champions. He has remained irreplaceable part of his team in both Lazio SS and Internazionale Milan until the end of his career in 2013. During the time spent in Italy, he has won Serie A six times and Italian Cup on no less than five occasions. He has also won the UEFA Champions League in 2010 and is Serbian player with most caps in the competition. Finally, Stanković is the current record holder for most caps for Serbian national team as well.

5. Rajko Mitić

Red Star’s first star and captain is still considered one of the club’s best players. Even the club’s stadium proudly wears his name. Born on November 19, 1922, Mitić had to wait until his 23rd year before playing league football due to World War II. Nevertheless, he has managed to lead Red Star to five championship titles and four cup titles – three of which were won in a row. He has two silver Olympic medals with the Yugoslav national team from the games held in London and Helsinki where he was the skipper to one of the best Yugoslav soccer generations of all times.

4. Dejan Petković Rambo

We continue the list of 11 best Serbian soccer players of all time with one of the most lucid players among them. Petković has accomplished himself as a player in Brazil of all places. There he is considered as one of the best foreigners ever and was even awarded the title of an honorary consul of Serbia in Brazil. He is considered as one of the best corner kick specialists and holds the record as a player with most goals scored directly from corner kicks in football history. He has scored eight such goals during his prominent career which saw him lift the titles in Yugoslavia, Spain and Brazil respectively.

3. Todor Veselinović

Toza is the only player on the list which didn’t play for either of the Belgrade arch rivals; not counting pre-1945 period when Red Star and Partizan didn’t exist. At least Veselinović didn’t play for any of them voluntarily. He was forced to spend a season in Partizan during his mandatory military service since this was the army club at the time. However, even though threatened by army’s high command, Toza returned to his first love, Vojvodina football club from his city of birth, Novi Sad. He has scored 130 goals in 192 games for Vojvodina, and his clinical finishing was proven by his national team numbers as well where he has scored 28 goals in 37 matches for Yugoslavia. This makes him Yugoslavia’s best goalscorer of all times, percentage-wise. His only downside as a player was his love for pigeons. As an amateur pigeon domesticator, he would often remain petrified upon the pitch while the birds were flying over the stadium. At that point, he didn’t care at all about what was happening on the field.

2. Dragan Džajić

Even though many people consider him to be the best soccer player to have ever emerged from Serbia, Džajić ends up second on our list. Deadly left winger has scored 144 goals in 361 official matches; all of them for Red Star and Bastia, his only two clubs. He has also managed to bag in 23 goals for Yugoslavia on 85 occasions. His passing, goal-scoring and dribbling skills are rarely seen even in modern football and will remain testament for countless future generations of soccer players. After all, you don’t have to believe us. Here’s what famous Pelé had to say about him: “Džajić is the Balkan miracle – a real wizard. I’m just sorry he’s not Brazilian because I’ve never seen such a natural footballer”.

1. Blagoje Marjanović

What might be considered as a surprise choice is often bolstered by clear facts. Blagoje Marjanović Moša is the oldest player on the list, being born on September 9, 1907. Marjanović was a pure striker who has clinched 36 goals for his country in 57 matches and was the part of Yugoslavia’s setup which ended third at first FIFA World Cup after controversial loss to the hosts in semi-final. He has also scored 575 goals in 566 matches during his 14 years in BSK football club. That’s a career ratio of more than a goal per match. If none of this is enough for you, consider the fact that he was Yugoslavia’s first professional footballer alongside his teammate Aleksandar Tirnanić.

Our list could have looked different on another day. Who knows what would have happened if prolific striker Dragan Mance didn’t die in a car accident at the age of 23. Vladimir Petković, Dragoslav Šekularac and Ivan Bek are also players well worthy of this list, but a soccer team has enough spots for only 11 players. That’s why our list of 11 best Serbian soccer players of all time looks the way it does.