Rade Bogdanović

Rade Bogdanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Раде Богдановић; born 21 May 1970 in Sarajevo) is a Bosnian Serb football manager and former player.^[1]

Club career

Yugoslavia

Bogdanović began his career in hometown Željezničar. His debut for the club, playing at the time in the Yugoslav First League, came in 1987. The promising forward stayed there until 1992, which is when he left Sarajevo as the Bosnian War broke out. The 22-year-old fled to Belgrade along with several other Željo players such as Simo Krunić, Gordan Vidović, Suvad Katana, Siniša Nikolić, and Srećko Ilić. Once there, they were accommodated by FK Partizan's technical director Nenad Bjeković and general secretary Žarko Zečević who took care of their basic living needs and allowed them to train at the club facilities in order to maintain fitness while looking for new clubs even though they weren't on Partizan's roster.^[2]

Far East

Soon afterwards Bogdanović made a jump to the Far East, signing with Korean POSCO Atoms from Pohang. Playing in the modest league consisting of only six teams, Bogdanović quickly established himself as one of its best players.

After spending four and a half seasons at the club he signed in October 1996 with Japanese JEF United Ichihara. Two months later he got a dream offer from Louis van Gaal's Ajax Amsterdam and, seeing it as a chance to finally come back to Europe, Bogdanović signed with them in late December 1996 without making them aware that he was under contract with JEF. This created problems, so the UEFA arbitration committee got involved. Bogdanović was hoping to come to some sort of compensation agreement with JEF that would allow him to go to Ajax, but in the end he was forced to stay in Japan where he spent five months, playing the first part of the J. League season.^[2]

Return to Europe

During summer 1997, his wish of returning to Europe finally came true as compatriot Radomir Antić signed him to a contract with Atlético Madrid. He made his debut for the club at home versus Valladolid on 6 September 1997, scoring two first half goals as los Colchoneros routed the visitors 5–0 by the end.^[3] The dream start prompted Atlético's impulsive president Jesús Gil to buy Bogdanović a brand new BMW 316i as a reward.^[2] However, the presence of Christian Vieri and Kiko meant few starting opportunities for Bogdanović though he still managed four more league goals by January 1998. During the winter transfer window he got loaned out to Dutch NAC Breda.

Werder Bremen

After playing out the 1997–98 season in Eredivisie, Atlético sold Bogdanović to Werder Bremen for a fee of around €1,350,000. He stayed at the German club for four years. In the 2002–03 season, he played for Arminia Bielefeld, and then went to Al-Wahda from United Arab Emirates. After that, he retired from professional football.

Honours

Club

Pohang Atoms

• K-League
  • Winners: 1992
  • Runners-up: 1995
• K-League Cup
  • Winners: 1993
  • Runners-up: 1996

Individual

Pohang Atoms

• K-League Cup Top Scorer: 1994
• K-League Top Assistor: 1996
• K-League Best XI: 1994, 1996

Club career statistics

^[4]

International

Bogdanović also played three times and scored two goals for national team of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He was asked to play for national team of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but he chose to play for FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).

International career statistics

International goals

Results list FR Yugoslavia's goal tally first.

Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
12 June 1997	Seoul	Ghana	2 goals	3–1	Korea Cup 1997

Post-playing

Bogdanović tried his hand at coaching and football administration with a few low-profile stints, most notably at FK Rad and BASK.

Since early 2011 he owns and runs a football recreation facility called Posco Arena (after his Korean team) in Belgrade's neighbourhood of Careva Ćuprija.

In April 2011, Bogdanović caused controversy in an interview for Belgrade daily newspaper Sport with a claim that Atletico's last match of the 1997–98 La Liga season on 15 May 1998 away at Racing Santander was fixed by Atletico president Jesus Gil because Atletico needed three points to ensure the UEFA Cup spot for the following season.^[5] Bogdanović said: "Gil walked into the dressing room before the match and said that each player has to set aside DM25,000 out of the DM150,000 bonus in order for the win to be bought".^[2] The match ended 0–1 for the Madrid visitors.^[6]

Personal

Bogdanović and his wife Aleksandra have three children, the oldest daughter is Kristina (born 1 June 1994 in South Korea), the second is called Marija (born 17 October 2000 in Germany) and the third is Sofija (born 26 July 2007 in Spain).

Bogdanović and his family reside in Belgrade though they also spend time in Marbella where he owns an apartment.

Bogdanović's nephews Vladimir Jovančić and Darko Jovančić are also football players currently with FK Rad and BASK, respectively.

References

External links

• Profile on Serbian National Football Team page (Serbian)
• Rade Bogdanović at kleague.com
• Rade Bogdanović at National-Football-Teams.com
• Player Record at Atletico (Spanish)