Predrag Mijatovic - the greatest Yugoslav forward

Predrag Mijatovic is one of the most famous Yugoslav football players in history. The striker, who scored a lot of goals and played for the best clubs in Europe, earned himself a great name with his talent and incredible scoring chances. But how did his career develop? Predrag Mijatovic did not immediately become a player of the top club, he began with a small and gradually advanced higher and higher.

Carier start

Predrag Mijatovic, born in Yugoslavia in 1969, succeeded several football schools, while he was very young. But in the end he was in the academy of the most famous Yugoslav club "Partizan" from Belgrade. It was with him at the age of 18, Predrag concluded his first professional contract, but the first year he practically did not receive any gaming practice.

A year later, Mijatovic was leased to a lesser known club called Buduchnost, for which he immediately began performing on a regular basis, scoring ten goals. After gaining experience, Predrag Mijatovic returned to Partizan, where he was able to win a place in the base and play for his native club for four years. The athlete played 104 games, in which 45 goals scored - this is an impressive result.

In many ways, thanks to the efforts of the young striker in 1992, Partizan was able to win the championship and the national cup simultaneously. Naturally, such a talent could not remain unnoticed for a long time, and in 1993, at the age of 24, Mijatovic moved to Spain, where he began to play for Valencia, which paid him ten million euros for that moment.

Career in "Valencia"

At the new location, the striker played instantly. There was a feeling that this was some kind of local Spanish talent, not Yugoslav Predrag Mijatovic. His goals were just a feast, and he scored quite often. In Valencia, the player spent as many matches as in his previous club - 104, but scored even more goals - 56. This was an incredible result, and Mijatovic became more and more famous in the world. When he was 27 years old, the athlete was able to make the jump to the very top - to become a player of one of the strongest clubs in the world - Madrid "Real". The Royal Club laid out "Valencia" for the top-forward 14 million euros.

Climb to the top

And here is the highest point of the career that Predrag Mijatovic could achieve - "Real Madrid" - the club that every footballer dreams about. Here, Yugoslav also spent three years, but his performance was slightly reduced. For ninety matches the athlete scored thirty goals - the result is good, but still not as outstanding as the leadership of the greatest club would have liked. Moreover, it is worth noting that in 1999, Mijatovic was already thirty years old, so it was difficult to expect that he would rapidly develop further. Therefore, "Real" has made a profitable deal for himself: he sold the aging striker to Italy to the club "Fiorentina", which paid him 12 million euros.

Moving to Italy

Of course, many were waiting for excellent football from the once great forward, but the age made itself felt, and the championship was completely unfamiliar, compared to Spain, where Predrag spent six years of his life. The result was a strong decline: for three years in the "Fiorentina" Miyatovich played only 42 games, which scored 4 years - this is incredibly little if compared with his previous results. Mijatovic's three-year contract came to an end, and he decided to return to Spain, where he felt more comfortable. With a 33-year-old football player, he signed a one-year contract with Levante.

Return to Spain

Naturally, in the "Levant" Mijatovic played the role, rather, of the icon than the actual player. But even so he played 21 matches and scored three more goals. At this great Yugoslavian striker decided to quit with the career of the player. With the "Real" Mijatovic became the champion of Spain and the winner of the Champions League Cup, with "Fiorentina" - the owner of the Italian Cup, even with "Partizan" he won the championship and the cup of Yugoslavia (twice). In the Yugoslav team, Mijatovic played 70 games, scoring 37 goals in them, four more matches occurred after the division of the country, and he played for the team of Montenegro, for which he could not score.

What's next?

However, far from immediately breaking his ties with football, Predrag Mijatovic. The sportsman's wife, of course, was waiting for him at home, but he rested only three years. After that, the former football player returned to Madrid "Real", where he took the post of sports director and stayed on it for three years until May 2009. Then Mijatovic went into the shadows and to this day does not occupy any position in any of the clubs.

There were some rumors about appointing him to the position of sports director in other clubs. Most of all there was talk about the London "Chelsea", but in the end nothing happened. Also, the athlete, through old friendship, helped other people who held managerial positions in clubs: he negotiated with players and so on, but nothing serious was happening. And since 2011 about Miyatovich as a member of football life in general, almost never remembered.