Preki

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Preki

Personal information
Full name	Predrag Radosavljević
Date of birth	June 24, 1963 (1963-06-24) (age 46)
Place of birth	Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Playing position	Left winger
Club information
Current club	Toronto FC (head coach)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1983–1985	Red Star Belgrade	1	(0)
	Tacoma Stars (indoor)
1991–1992	St. Louis Storm (indoor)	39	(45)
1992–1994	Everton	46	(4)
1994–1995	Portsmouth	40	(5)
1995	San Jose Grizzlies (indoor)
1996–2000	Kansas City Wizards	145	(50)
2001	Miami Fusion	24	(8)
2002–2005	Kansas City Wizards	73	(21)
Total		329	(88)
National team
1996–1998	United States	28	(4)
Teams managed
2006	Chivas USA (assistant)
2007–2009	Chivas USA
2010–	Toronto FC
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Predrag "Preki" Radosavljević (Serbian: Предраг Радосављевић) (born June 24, 1963 in Belgrade) is a Yugoslavian-born American former soccer player. He is currently the head coach of Toronto FC in Major League Soccer.

During his playing career he played for English clubs Everton and Portsmouth, and was an 'MLS original' upon the formation of Major League Soccer in 1996, playing for the Kansas City Wizards and Miami Fusion. He is a two-time winner of the Major League Soccer MVP Award, and represented the United States at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] England

Preki played briefly for Red Star Belgrade in the old Yugoslav First League, and played indoor soccer in the United States for Tacoma Stars and St. Louis Storm before being bought by Everton manager Howard Kendall for a fee of £100,000 in the summer of 1992 following a trial. He made 53 appearances for the Blues, 28 of those as a substitute, before moving to Portsmouth in July 1994.

[edit] Major League Soccer

After a short stint with the indoor San Jose Grizzlies, Preki resumed outdoor play beginning with MLS's inaugural season in 1996 when he joined the Kansas City Wizards. He played every season for the Wizards, except for one season with the Miami Fusion in 2001. After the Fusion were contracted, the Wizards re-acquired Preki in the 2002 MLS Dispersal Draft, but only after every other team in the league had passed on selecting him. Preki is the only player to have won the MLS MVP Award and the MLS Scoring Champion Award twice, winning in 1997 and 2003, and is also the current all-time league leader in points scored (270 on 79 goals and 112 assists, plus another 25 points on 10 goals and 5 assists in the playoffs). He won the 2000 MLS Cup with the Wizards. Preki retired following the 2005 season, scoring a goal in the last minute of his final game with Kansas City. He was named to the MLS All-Time Best XI after the season, and was 42 years old when he played his final competitive game^[1].

[edit] International

Though originally from Yugoslavia, Preki played for the American national team after acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1996. He made his debut for the U.S. on November 3, against Guatemala. Preki played a total of 28 games for the U.S., scoring four goals, one of them to beat Brazil at the 1998 Gold Cup. Two of those games, including one against his native Yugoslavia, came in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He made his last appearance for the national team in a 2-0 loss away to Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying on September 5, 2001^[2].

[edit] Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Preki became an assistant coach with Chivas USA, and upon the appointment of Bob Bradley as the United States national team manager, Preki was promoted as head coach of Chivas USA for the 2007 Major League Soccer season and was named MLS Coach of the Year in his first season.^[3]

Preki left Chivas "by mutual consent" on November 12, 2009, following Chivas' failure to progress to the latter stages of the MLS playoffs, in which they were defeated by Los Angeles Galaxy^[4]. He became head coach of Toronto FC on November 19, 2009^[5].

[edit] See also

• List of current MLS coaches

[edit] Awards

[edit] Individual

• Major League Soccer MVP: 1997, 2003
• Major League Soccer Coach of the Year: 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Preki profile at United States National Soccer Players

v • d • e United States squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Friedel • 2 Hejduk • 3 Pope • 4 Burns • 5 Dooley • 6 Regis • 7 Wegerle • 8 Stewart • 9 Moore • 10 Ramos • 11 Wynalda • 12 Agoos • 13 Jones • 14 Preki • 15 Deering • 16 Sommer • 17 Balboa • 18 Keller • 19 Maisonneuve • 20 McBride • 21 Reyna • 22 Lalas • Coach: Sampson