Mladen Krstajic
Encyclopedia
Mladen Krstajić is a former Serbian
footballer who currently works as a director of football
for FK Partizan
.
, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina
, SFR Yugoslavia
to Serb
parents (his mother is from Bijeljina
and his father from Žabljak
).
He grew up in Bosnia and played in the youth squads of NK Čelik (1984–1992). In 1992 it became dangerous to live in Bosnia, because of the civil war, so he and his family moved to Serbia
.
in April 1992, following the breakout of the Bosnian war
. He started playing with FK Senta
for six months. He then moved on the OFK Kikinda, at that time a first league club. At some point of a successful career as a Serbian football player, there comes the time, to decide, whether one wants to play for Partizan or for Zvezda, and Krstajić decided to take the move to Partizan in 1996. According to Krstajić himself, also FK Crvena zvezda was interested in him, but as he comes from a "Partizan" family, he decided to sign a contract with his favourite club. His four and a half years at Partizan was more than successful, winning the national championships three times (1996, 1997, 1999) and also the national cup in 1998.
The defender with the "winner mentality" (Jupp Heynckes
) moved then to SV Werder Bremen
, where he became one of the best defenders in the Fußball-Bundesliga
, winning the German Championship and Cup with Werder in 2004. Since 2004 he played for FC Schalke 04
, where he was named the new captain on 17 March 2009. On 5 June 2009, Krstajić signed a two-year contract with his former club FK Partizan
. In January 2010, after the departure of Nenad Đorđević, he was named a new Partizan captain. After two very successful seasons, he played his last professional match on 21 May 2011. Immediately after retiring he was appointed as the new director of football
of the club.
. The other members of the famous four are Ivica Dragutinović
, Goran Gavrančić
and Nemanja Vidić
. He was capped 59 times for Serbia
, and was undoubtedly the leading figure of the "Famous Four" due to his experience and age.
Werder Bremen
Schalke 04
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
footballer who currently works as a director of football
Director of football
"Director of football" is a term describing a senior management figure at a football club, most commonly used in Europe. The exact nature of the role is often unclear and extremely variable and causes much debate in the sports media...
for FK Partizan
FK Partizan
Fudbalski klub Partizan is a professional football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. In its long history, FK Partizan won as many as 37 trophies. The club is the holder of 23 national championships, 12 national cups and 1 national supercup, and has also won the Mitropa Cup in 1978...
.
Early life
Mladen Krstajić was born in ZenicaZenica
Zenica is an industrial city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the capital of the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity...
, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , known until 1963 under the name of People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
, SFR Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
to Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
parents (his mother is from Bijeljina
Bijeljina
Bijeljina is a city and municipality in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city is the second largest in the Republika Srpska entity after Banja Luka and fifth largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is situated on the flat rich plains of Semberija...
and his father from Žabljak
Žabljak
Žabljak is a small town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 1,937.Žabljak is the seat of the municipality...
).
He grew up in Bosnia and played in the youth squads of NK Čelik (1984–1992). In 1992 it became dangerous to live in Bosnia, because of the civil war, so he and his family moved to Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
.
Club career
After playing in the youth system of NK Čelik, Krstajić moved to KikindaKikinda
Kikinda is a town and a municipality located in Serbia, in the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is the administrative centre of the North Banat District. The town has 42,000 inhabitants, while the municipality has approximately 67,000 inhabitants.The modern city was founded in 18th century...
in April 1992, following the breakout of the Bosnian war
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. He started playing with FK Senta
FK Senta
FK Senta is a football club based in Senta, Serbia.-History:Formed in 1905 and despite being one of the oldest football clubs from Serbia and its surrounding countries, the club archived its major success between 1950 and 1952 when playing in the Serbian League, one of the six regional third...
for six months. He then moved on the OFK Kikinda, at that time a first league club. At some point of a successful career as a Serbian football player, there comes the time, to decide, whether one wants to play for Partizan or for Zvezda, and Krstajić decided to take the move to Partizan in 1996. According to Krstajić himself, also FK Crvena zvezda was interested in him, but as he comes from a "Partizan" family, he decided to sign a contract with his favourite club. His four and a half years at Partizan was more than successful, winning the national championships three times (1996, 1997, 1999) and also the national cup in 1998.
The defender with the "winner mentality" (Jupp Heynckes
Jupp Heynckes
Josef "Jupp" Heynckes is a German football coach and former player. As player he belonged to the core of the team of Borussia Mönchengladbach in its golden era of the 1960s and 1970s where he won many national championships and the Cup as well as the UEFA Cup...
) moved then to SV Werder Bremen
SV Werder Bremen
SV Werder Bremen is a German sports club best known for its association football team playing in Bremen, in the northwest German federal state of the same name. The club was founded on 4 February 1899 as Fußballverein Werder by a group of sixteen vocational high school students who had won a prize...
, where he became one of the best defenders in the Fußball-Bundesliga
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
, winning the German Championship and Cup with Werder in 2004. Since 2004 he played for FC Schalke 04
FC Schalke 04
Fußball-Club Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04, commonly known as simply FC Schalke 04 or Schalke , is a German, association-football club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Schalke has long been one of the most popular football teams in Germany, even though major...
, where he was named the new captain on 17 March 2009. On 5 June 2009, Krstajić signed a two-year contract with his former club FK Partizan
FK Partizan
Fudbalski klub Partizan is a professional football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. In its long history, FK Partizan won as many as 37 trophies. The club is the holder of 23 national championships, 12 national cups and 1 national supercup, and has also won the Mitropa Cup in 1978...
. In January 2010, after the departure of Nenad Đorđević, he was named a new Partizan captain. After two very successful seasons, he played his last professional match on 21 May 2011. Immediately after retiring he was appointed as the new director of football
Director of football
"Director of football" is a term describing a senior management figure at a football club, most commonly used in Europe. The exact nature of the role is often unclear and extremely variable and causes much debate in the sports media...
of the club.
International career
Krstajić has been a part of the Serbia and Montenegro national team "Famous Four" defence, which conceded just one goal during the qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
. The other members of the famous four are Ivica Dragutinović
Ivica Dragutinovic
Ivica Dragutinović , sometimes just Drago, is a Serbian footballer.Mainly a central defender, he can also operate as a defensive left back...
, Goran Gavrančić
Goran Gavrancic
Goran Gavrančić is a former Serbian football defender.-Club career:His career began at Čukarički Stankom, having played for Crvena zvezda as a youth. His performances at Čukarički caught the eye of Dynamo Kyiv manager Valeriy Lobanovskyi and the Ukrainian club purchased him in January 2001...
and Nemanja Vidić
Nemanja Vidic
Nemanja Vidić is a Serbian footballer who captains English Premier League club Manchester United. He was part of the Serbia national football team from 2002 to 2011....
. He was capped 59 times for Serbia
Serbia national football team
The Serbia national football team represents Serbia in association football and is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia, the governing body for football in Serbia. Serbia's home ground is Stadion Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade and their last head coach was Vladimir Petrović...
, and was undoubtedly the leading figure of the "Famous Four" due to his experience and age.
Career statistics
| Club | Season | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |||||||
| Partizan FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan is a professional football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. In its long history, FK Partizan won as many as 37 trophies. The club is the holder of 23 national championships, 12 national cups and 1 national supercup, and has also won the Mitropa Cup in 1978... |
1995–96 | 6 | 1 | – | 6 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 1996–97 | 11 | 0 | – | 11 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 1997–98 | 21 | 4 | – | 21 | 4 | |||||||||||
| 1998–99 | 17 | 0 | – | 17 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 1999–00 | 29 | 2 | 2 | 0 | – | 6 | 2 | 37 | 4 | |||||||
| Total | 84 | 7 | 2 | 0 | Werder Bremen SV Werder Bremen SV Werder Bremen is a German sports club best known for its association football team playing in Bremen, in the northwest German federal state of the same name. The club was founded on 4 February 1899 as Fußballverein Werder by a group of sixteen vocational high school students who had won a prize... | 2000–01 | 25 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 32 | 2 |
| 2001–02 | 26 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 30 | 2 | ||||||
| 2002–03 | 31 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 41 | 5 | ||||||
| 2003–04 | 30 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 39 | 3 | ||||||
| Total | 112 | 11 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 142 | 12 | ||||||
| Schalke 04 FC Schalke 04 Fußball-Club Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04, commonly known as simply FC Schalke 04 or Schalke , is a German, association-football club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Schalke has long been one of the most popular football teams in Germany, even though major... |
2004–05 | 28 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 45 | 3 | |||||
| 2005–06 | 29 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 44 | 2 | ||||||
| 2006–07 | 27 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 1 | ||||||
| 2007–08 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 34 | 2 | ||||||
| 2008–09 | 24 | 1 | 3 | 0 | – | 4 | 0 | 31 | 1 | |||||||
| Total | 131 | 7 | 13 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 34 | 1 | 183 | 9 | ||||||
| Partizan FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan is a professional football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. In its long history, FK Partizan won as many as 37 trophies. The club is the holder of 23 national championships, 12 national cups and 1 national supercup, and has also won the Mitropa Cup in 1978... |
2009–10 2009–10 Serbian Superliga -League table:-Results:... |
22 | 2 | 1 | 0 | – | 9 | 2 | 32 | 4 | ||||||
| 2010–11 2010–11 Serbian Superliga -League table:-Results:... |
21 | 1 | 4 | 0 | – | 12 | 0 | 37 | 1 | |||||||
| Total | 43 | 3 | 5 | 0 | Career total | 370 | 28 | 34 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 76 | 6 | 486 | 35 | |
Club
Partizan- Serbian SuperLigaSerbian SuperligaSerbian SuperLiga is a Serbian professional league for football clubs. At the top of the Serbian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 16 clubs, operating a system of promotion and relegation with the Serbian First League...
: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2009–10, 2010–11 - Serbian CupSerbian CupThe Serbian Cup is the national football cup of Serbia. For sponsorship reasons it is referred to in the media as Lav Cup of Serbia since 2007.The winner of the competition gets a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round.-Sponsorship:...
: 2010–11
Werder Bremen
- Fußball-BundesligaFußball-BundesligaThe Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
: 2003–04 - DFB-PokalDFB-PokalThe DFB-Pokal or DFB Cup is a German knockout football cup competition held annually. 64 teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga. It is considered the second most important national title in German football after the Bundesliga...
: 2003–04
Schalke 04
- DFB-LigapokalDFB-LigapokalThe DFB-Ligapokal, or German League Cup, was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous Fußball-Bundesliga season and the winners of the DFB-Pokal in Germany...
: 2005
External links
- Mladen Krstajić at fussballdaten.de
- Mladen Krstajić at reprezentacija.rs