Dragan Stojkovic: One of the greatest

Dragan Stojkovi?, or “Piksi”, as he is fondly called, is a legend in Japan, and is currently the coach of Nagoya, the team for which he played for years. He is loved by the Japanese to such an extent that a street in Nagoya has his name, as well as one stand of Nagoya’s stadium. Japanese automobile manufacturer, Toyota, even has a model “Pixis”, named after him. He is a Red Star legend (“5th star of Red Star”). Stojkovic played for Yugoslavia 84 times, including two World Cups. And he was one of the most talented footballers I’ve ever seen in my life.

If you were born in the ’90s, you might never have heard of him. The truth is, his career wasn’t as impressive as it should have been. Injuries unfortunately ravaged his career. But I still stand by what I said; there aren’t too many players more talented than him in the last 25 years. I count myself very lucky to have been born in time to see him play. For those who didn’t, there’s always a way.

Piksi started his career in Radni?ki from Niš where he was born on March 3rd, 1965. He played there for 5 seasons and, in 1986, he transferred to Red Star. That’s where he had his best years, becoming the best Yugoslav player. He scored 54 times for Red Star in 120 matches.

He was a number 10, a real artist with a dribbling ability that left many defenders flabbergasted. My first memory of him was a goal directly from corner in a derby vs Partizan. That goal was one of Stojkovic’s greatest moments in an exemplary career. He attempted things that only players who have a lot of self-confidence and quality could. Even now, if you read his interviews, you can sense the confidence that would sound like arrogance if he was just any other player. But he wasn’t.

He won two national titles with Red Star & one National Cup, also being named as the best player of the Yugoslavian league twice. Stojkovic played plenty of legendary games throughout his career. Red Star’s Champions Cup game vs Milan, when one of the greatest teams in the history was saved by Belgrade fog, is one such example. He was also part of the Red Star team that was leading the mighty Real Madrid by three goals in the Champions Cup after 40 minutes. Real Madrid had one of the greatest players of the time, Hugo Sanchez, in their squad and managed to get the game back to 4-2, winning the tie on away goals with a 2-0 win in the second leg.

He left Red Star in the summer of 1990 and went to Olympique Marseille, owned by rich and controversial Bernard Tapie. He was a big signing that was supposed to help Marseille reach the top of European football, along with other big names like Waddle, Papin, Abedi Pele, Mozer, etc. They reached the final of the Champions Cup in the 1990/91 season and fittingly met with Stojkovi?’s beloved Red Star. The match went down to penalties, and he was asked to take one, but he famously told his coach Raymond Goethals: “Why don’t you take it? If I score, Yugoslavia will hate me. If I miss, France will hate me”. Whether this is the truth or just a legend is unknown, but the fact is that he didn’t want to take a penalty against the team he loved.

Before that season, however, there was a World Cup to be played in Italy. Yugoslavia went through to the knock-out stages from the group in which Germany dominated. In the first knock out match, Yugoslavia played Spain and, thanks to Piksi’s two magnificent goals, went through to quarter finals where they lost to Maradona’s Argentina on penalties. Stojkovic (as well as Maradona) missed his penalty.

Unfortunately, very soon after he came to Marseille, he suffered a knee injury which forced him to miss most of the season. He spent a season in Verona on loan in 1992 and came back to Marseille, but injuries would always be a problem. These recurring injuries proved to be a stumbling block in Stojkovic’s bid to realise his true potential.

In 1994, he began his Japanese adventure. He signed for Nagoya Grampus Eight, the club which was then managed by a certain Arsene Wenger, and had Gary Lineker in its squad sheet. It was speculated multiple times that Wenger might declare Stojkovic as his heir when he left for Arsenal. The two of them are still great friends and, as Stojkovi? said in a recent interview, they often talk about football and coaching. Stojkovi? ended his playing career in 2001 and immediately became the president of Yugoslav Football Association.

In 2005, he finally came back to his Red Star in the role of club president. His presidency, however, will not be remembered fondly. It is still uncertain how much of it is his fault, but the fact remains that the club went from financially troubled to a club that is in financial hell. Stojkovi? stepped down in 2007 and went to Japan. The reasons behind this are yet to be known, but there were speculations about ties with some criminals who were asking him to return the money they invested in the club.

While he is still very much loved by ‘regular’ Red Star supporters, his relationship with the so-called ultras is not as good. He had multiple unpleasant experiences with them. He even had a bomb of some kind thrown at his house in Niš, which probably doesn’t have anything to do with ultras, but with the mentioned criminals.

Back to football. In 2008, he became coach of Nagoya Grampus Eight. In his first season, he led the club to 3rd place in the Japanese championship. In 2010, Nagoya became champions of Japan for the first time in history under the guidance of Stojkovic. In the meantime, even as a coach he continued to show his amazing skills.

This season wasn’t that successful for him and his team, but he has already showed that he has what it takes to become a top coach. Arsene Wenger mentioned him as a possible successor at Arsenal, saying that their ideas about football were very similar. Piksi himself said that he likes positive, attacking football and that he will always try to make his teams play football that is attractive for the fans.

Whether it will really happen is hard to say, but it is hard not to be excited by his prospect as a coach. Hopefully, there won’t be any outside factors to hinder his future, like injuries did to his playing career.