Darko Kovačević

Darko Kovačević

Personal information
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Olympiacos
Number	9

Darko Kovačević (Serbian Cyrillic: Дарко Ковачевић) (born 18 November, 1973 in Kovin, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian football player who currently plays for Olympiacos.

Early years

Kovacevic grew up in a modest family, in the suburbs of the Yugoslavian capital. At a very tender age many noticed his goalscoring attributes, such as his pace, his touch on the ball, his intelligent running on and off the ball, his accurate heading, and his ability to launch powerful shots with the minimum of backlift. His talent was first spotted by Olivier Draksic, the head scout for Proleter Zrenjanin, within a few months of seeing Kovacevic play, Draksic signed him up for Zrenjanin as a youth team player.

Protelar Zrenjanin

He enjoyed a succesful first season with Protelar Zrenjanin, scoring 37 goals in just 51 games, after that magnificent season it was rumoured that A.C. Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Roma, and Barcelona were all intrested in buying him, but instead Kovacevic decided to leave for Red Star Belgrade as he didn't think he was ready to be a big team player. On the deadline day of the summer transfer window (1994) Kovacevic was sold to Red Star Belgrade for £6.5million pounds, the sum was originally £4.5million but as Red Star Belgrade won the double an additional £2million was added on.

Red Star Belgrade

Another season of achievment waited for Kovacevic at Red Star Belgrade, as he was top scorer on his debut season, posing a deadly games-to-goal ratio of 47 games to 37 goals. Kovacevic was instrumental in Red Star Belgrades double triumph, and yet again Europes biggest teams were waiting to sign Kovacevic, but after a year at the club Kovacevic was sold to Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of £10million, leaving behind a chance of European glory to depart for the lower tiers of British football was not the smartest thing to do and the Red Star Belgrade fans' made their feelings heard in Kovacevics' last games, as he was booed mercilessly by his own fans.

Sheffield Wednesday

His time at Sheffield Wednesday was terrible to say the least as he was a usual reserve and never managed to find any starts, he expressed to football magazine SHOOT! his feelings towards Sheffield Wednesday saying that he was depressed, he was a ghost there, the players weren't worthy of their places in the team, and that the managment was mediocre at best, this brought on rage from the Sheffield Wednesday supporters, players, and managment. Kovacevic was not offered a new contract by Sheffield Wednesday and he was shipped out to Real Sociedad on a free in the summer of 1996.

Real Sociedad

He enjoyed succesful times at Real Sociedad playing 91 games and scoring 41 goals in two seasons (averaging either 20 or 21 goals in his first two seasons) it seemed that all along the Spanish game had suited it best, and after scoring a double against Real Madrid and helping Real Sociedad top the La Liga group he became a cult figure, as fans made up their own chant: You look good in our shirt. He is already known as a legend at Real Sociedad, and usually referred to as the Yugoslavian Ronaldo by Real Sociedad fans.

Juventus

In July 1999 Real Sociedad had confirmed the sale of Darko Kovacevic to Juventus for an un-disclosed fee, all did not go to plan though, as he played 47 games only scoring 11 goals. Prior to the Yugoslavian Ronaldo chants by Real Sociedad fans, the Juventus ultra-fans instead chanted Yugoslavian Failure also prior to the You look good in our shirt chants by Real Sociedad fans, the Juventus ultra-fans instead chanted You look horrific in our shirt, causing Kovacevic to leave after just two seasons with Juventus.

His best games were against Levski Sofia and SSC Napoli,where he scored braces in each

Lazio

He failed to make his mark at Lazio as he was never given enough chances to prove himself, in 7 games he scored no goals, and had 14 shots on target, people think his dip in form was his phobia of the italian superfans who had mercilessly booed him while he was in Italy, he was deeply depressed in Italy and he explained to Gazello de Sport that he was worried about his safety and that he didn't think he was good enough to impress the superfans. After only a single season with Lazio he left for Real Sociedad.

Real Sociedad Again

On his return to Real Sociedad he was welcomed with a standing ovation, as banners rolled out from the terraces, all of which were claiming how great Kovacevic was. On his return to Real Sociedad he scored four goals, causing both him and the whole of the Real Sociedad home crowd to cry. In 2007 he was inducted in the Real Sociedad Hall Of Fame for his contribution to the club. He managed to score 162 goals in 260 games for the Real Sociedad squad.

Olympiacos

Kovacevic agreed for one year deal (07-08) with Olympiacos on a free transfer.

International Career

In 55 games for Yugoslavia he has scored 20 times, and has featured in the World Cup of France, in 1998 and also the 2000 European Championships.

External links

• Template:Jadransport
• national-football-teams.com