Simon Vukčević
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| Simon Vukčević | ||
 |
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Simon Vukčević | |
| Date of birth | January 29, 1986 | |
| Place of birth | Titograd, SFR Yugoslavia | |
| Height | 1.79m | |
| Playing position | Attacking midfielder | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | FC Saturn | |
| Number | 10 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| FK Budućnost Podgorica Partizan Belgrade |
||
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 2003-2005 2006- |
Partizan Belgarde FC Saturn |
51 (13) 24 (0) |
| National team2 | ||
| 2003 - 2006 2005 2007 - |
Serbia and Montenegro U21 Serbia and Montenegro Montenegro |
7 (1) 5 (0) 1 (0) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Simon Vukčević (Serbian Cyrillic: Симон Вукчевић), (born January 29, 1986 in Titograd, Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Montenegrin football player.
One of the most exciting players of recent times in Serbia and Montenegro, attacking midfielder Vukčević started learning his craft at FK Budućnost Podgorica before moving to the Serbian capital to join FK Partizan youth system at the tender age of 16.
Contents |
[edit] Club career
[edit] Partizan Belgrade
Blessed with boundless confidence, he spent two years in the youth ranks in Belgrade before bursting into the first team, scoring and creating goals from midfield. He was awarded the No1 shirt, in recognition of his popularity among Partizan supporters. His best season with the club was the 2004/05 campaign during which he starred with eye-catching midfield displays in domestic league and UEFA Cup. However, the form didn't spill over into 2005/06 season as Vukčević faced criticism over his excessive solo play and poor shot selection, as well as overall deteriorating form.
[edit] Saturn Ramenskoe
Despite criticism, his move to Russian side FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast in January 2006 came as somewhat of a shock. The transfer, said to have cost the Russian club about €7 million, has so far failed to raise Vukčević's form to where it once was. In late July 2006, Vukčević was even demoted to Saturn's reserve squad with coach Vladimír Weiss publicly blasting him in Russian press for displaying bad atittude in training and having a lack of manners[1].
Saturn finished the 2006 season at dissapointing 11th place in Russian league, and as the 2007 season was about to start Vukčević expressed frustration with coach Weiss playing him out of position. Vukčević also said that coming to Saturn was a mistake and that he would have preferred a more ambitious club.[2]
He was nominated for the Gillette Best Young Player Award in early 2006.
[edit] National team
[edit] Under 21 level
At the age of eighteen, Vukčević was selected by head coach Vladimir "Pižon" Petrović to be a part of the Serbia and Montenegro u-21 national team at the 2004 European Under-21 Football Championship in Germany. Vukčević had a notable tournament, scoring in a group stage loss to Italy (1-2), as well as in a semi-final penalty shootout against Sweden. Somewhat surprisingly, Serbia-Montenegro progressed all the way to the final where it lost again to the Italian team led by rising 21-year-old star Alberto Gilardino and 20-year-old Daniele De Rossi.
Barely two months later Vukčević was then part of the Serbian and Montenegrin 2004 Olympic football team that exited in the first round, finishing fourth in Group C behind gold-medal winners Argentina, Australia and Tunisia.
He also played for the national under-21 squad that qualified for another European championships, this time in Portugal 2006. Capped five times already for the senior national side, Vukčević, now 20, was hoping to further hone his talents with the u-21s in Portugal, but had a poor tournament. Following an indifferent display in the first group game (0-1 loss to Germany), head coach Dragan Okuka dropped him from the first team and Vukčević rarely featured in the side for the rest of the tournament. Serbia-Montenegro ended up progressing to semifinal where it lost on penalites to Ukraine.
[edit] Senior level
Following his noted under-21 dispalys Vukčević started getting call-ups to the Serbia-Montenegro senior side from head coach Ilija Petković. His debut as a substitute came during February 2005 friendly against Bulgaria. All of his caps, five in total, came under Petković - most of them in friendly warm-up matches.
In light of Montenegro seceding from the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro in May 2006, and the fact that Vukčević is from Podgorica, he chose to play for Montenegro team in the future. He played in their first ever game, when Montenegro won over Hungary (2:1) in a friendly match on March 24, 2007.
