Đorđe Vujadinović


Đorđe "Đokica" Vujadinović was a Serbian international football player and manager.

Career

He was born in Kolari, a suburb of Smederevo, but still very young, came to Belgrade to live with his uncle. While playing football with his friends in a sandy field in the Kalemegdan park in the center of the city, he was spotted by an "older serious man with hat" who invite him, together with other two boys, to come and make tests in, the biggest club from that period, BSK. He passed, and joined the youth team, in which played a wonderful generation of players, in which Tirnanić, Valjarević, Krčevinac, Zloković and he made the forward line, that will be, some years later, the attack of the BSK team that won many Championships in the 1930s. Those late 1920s were years of great expansion in the Yugoslav Kingdom and football was starting to be extremely popular. In those times, the players started to be professionalized and started to be paid monetarily, but he refused, saying that his earnings as a bank employee were enough for him and that he played football only by pleasure. This is a great example of his calm and honest character. Until 1940 he played about 400 matches for the club, was national Champion five times and twice a league top-scorer.
He was the only BSK player to win all five national titles.

National team

Before the World War II, the Yugoslav team was unimaginable without him in the squad. Between 1929 and 1940 he played 44 international matches, and did not play more because of his duties as a bank functioner. He was one of the main players of the Yugoslavia national football team in the 1930 FIFA World Cup, and scored a total of 18 goals for the national team.

International goals

Yugoslavia's goal tally first
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.26 January 1930Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, Athens, Greece1–01–21929–31 Balkan Cup
2.13 April 1930BSK Beograd Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia1–06–1Friendly
3.13 April 1930BSK Beograd Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia5–16–1Friendly
4.17 July 1930Estadio Gran Parque Central, Montevideo, Uruguay4–04–01930 FIFA World Cup
5.27 July 1930Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay1–01–61930 FIFA World Cup
6.24 April 1932Estadio Buenavista, Oviedo, Spain1–21–2Friendly
7.3 May 1932Estádio do Campo Grande, Lisbon, Portugal1–12–3Friendly
8.3 May 1932Estádio do Campo Grande, Lisbon, Portugal2–32–3Friendly
9.26 June 1932BSK Beograd Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia5–17–11932 Balkan Cup
10.3 July 1932BSK Beograd Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia3–13–11932 Balkan Cup
11.10 September 1933Polish Army Stadium, Warsaw, Poland1–13–4Friendly
12.10 September 1933Polish Army Stadium, Warsaw, Poland2–13–4Friendly
13.16 December 1934Parc des Princes, Paris, France2–12–3Friendly
14.20 June 1935Yunak Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria3–16–11935 Balkan Cup
15.24 June 1935Yunak Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria2–13–31935 Balkan Cup
16.24 June 1935Yunak Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria3–33–31935 Balkan Cup
17.10 May 1935ONEF Stadium, Bucharest, Romania1–12–31935 King Carol Cup
18.6 September 1937BSK Beograd Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia1–12–1Friendly

Manager career

After returning from captivity, in the end of the Second World War, he ended his playing career and dedicates to the work with the younger generations. He starts coaching the youth teams of FK Partizan and latter OFK Belgrade, where he also managed the senior team in 1960–61. He was also the manager of the Yugoslavia national under-21 football team and Altay S.K.. While in a zenith of his managerial time, he invited Mr.Miljan Miljanić, and with whom had already worked before, to substitute him in the job.

Honours

Club

He was nicknamed "Leteći fudbaler", translated to English "The flying footballer". This nickname was because during the last years he played with BSK he also worked as an employee in the National Bank of Yugoslavia, so as his work did not allow him to take numerous absences, when the club played away he did not travel earlier with the rest of the team, but he rather departed from Belgrade in last moments by airplane in order to come in time to the match.

External sources