Do You Remember Him #11- Savo Milosevic

Biodata

Full Name: Savo Milosevic

Nationality: Serbian

Date of Birth: 2 September 1973

Position: Striker

Former Clubs:

1992- 1995 Partizan

1995- 1998 Aston Villa

1998- 2000 Zaragoza

2000- 2004 Parma

2002 Zaragoza (loan)

2002- 2003 Espanyol (loan)

2003- 2004 Celta Vigo (loan)

2004- 2007 Osasuna

2008 Rubin Kazan

International Career:

1994- 2008 Serbia

Achievement:

Partizan

1992- 1993 First League of Serbia and Montenegro

1993- 1994 First League of Serbia and Montenegro

1993- 1994 Yugoslav Cup

Aston Villa

1995- 1996 EFL League Cup

Rubin Kazan

2008 Russian Premier League

Career

The major tournament such as the FIFA World Cup or Euro competition is always the best platform for the player to showcase himself on the general football fans, or even secure a move on his dream after the tournament. For an attacker of the team, earning the Golden Boot will be the best indicator of the quality of the attacker. Therefore, let the history tape rewind to the Euro 2000 and look at how does the Golden Boot of the tournament progressed in his career.

Savo Milosevic started playing football at the age of 6 and spent the majority of his youth career in Drina Valley. At the age of 14, he was spotted by Partizan scouts and secured his transfer to the club. Milosevic made his senior debut for Partizan in 1992, scoring 14 goals in 31 games during his debut season. He made his mark further in the Partizan senior team by scoring 21 and 30 league goals in his next two seasons respectively. His goal contributions in these two seasons and directly contributed to the Partizan back-to-back national championships, including the double in 1993-1994 season. Milosevic goal-scoring ability had attracted the attention from the Yugoslavia national team and offered him his first call up on December 1994, in a friendly against Brazil.

In the summer of 1995, Milosevic was brought to Aston Villa by the manager of the time Brian Little for the club record at the time. In his first season in the Villa Park, Milosevic scored 13 goals in all competitions. He even scored one goal in the victory against Leeds United in the 1995-1996 EFL Cup final. However, his goal-scoring ability had dropped since then. Milosevic only managed to score 9 goals and 8 goals in all competition in the following two seasons. Despite his form in England, Milosevic still managed to be selected in the Yugoslavia 23 men national team for FIFA World Cup 1998. Which he appeared twice in the tournament. After the tournament, Milosevic signed for the La Liga side Real Zaragoza. In Spain, he rediscovered his goal-scoring form in Real Zaragoza. Milosevic reignited his career in his second season in Spain, as his 21 goals for Real Zaragoza helped his team to reach fourth place in the 1999/2000 La Liga season.

Milosevic carried his impressive form to the national team as he is the main target man for the Yugoslavia national team in Euro 2000. He scored 5 goals at Euro 2000 which earned him the Golden Boot, which he shared with Patrick Kluivert. After an impressive tournament, Parma signed Milosevic for a hefty 25mil Euro in 2000. However, he was used sparingly during his spell in Parma. In order to gain more playing time, Milosevic was loaned back to Real Zaragoza halfway through the 2001-2002 season to rescue the team from relegation. Despite his 6 goals contributions in that season, Real Zaragoza was eventually relegated. Milosevic was subsequently loaned out to two other La Liga side, Espanyol and Celta Vigo in the next two seasons. Where his goal-scoring ability was rediscovered despite both of the teams couldn’t perform in overall. Which Espanyol narrowly escaped relegation and Celta Vigo was eventually relegated.

In July 2004, Milosevic signed a three-year contract for Osasuna. In his second season, he scored 11 goals in 32 games to help Osasuna to qualify for the Champions League. In the UEFA Cup semifinal run in the 2006-2007 season, Milosevic provided two assists in the away win against Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of quarterfinal. After his contract ended in the summer of 2007, Milosevic left the club and took a six-month break from competitive football. On March 2008, he agreed on terms with Rubin Kazan prior to the start of Russian Premier League campaign. Despite he scored a limited amount of goals in his spell in Kazan, he scored the decisive goal for Rubin Kazan in a game against FC Saturn Ramenskoye that secure the team first-ever national championship. Milosevic announced his retirement shortly afterwards.

Post Retirement

From 2011 to 2012, Milosevic was an assistant manager to Branko Brnovic at Montenegro national team. On March 2019, Milosevic was announced as the new manager of Partizan. He won his first managerial trophy as his Partizan side beat Red Star Belgrade in the 2018-2019 Serbian Cup. We hope that the national icon can make his mark again in his managerial career.