Darko Pančev

Darko Pančev ( mk, Дарко Панчев, ; born 7 September 1965) is a Macedonian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He most notably played for FK Vardar and Red Star Belgrade.

He was part of the Red Star Belgrade squad that won the European Cup in 1990–91, and was awarded the European Golden Boot in 1991.

Club career

Vardar Skopje

His playing career started in 1982 at Vardar Skopje where he quickly developed into one of the most feared strikers in the Yugoslav League, becoming league top scorer in the 1983–84 season. The skill and seeming ease of his goal scoring exploits in Skopje made him a target for bigger clubs.

Red Star Belgrade

During summer 1988, Pančev was snapped up by Red Star Belgrade, which beat cross-town rivals FK Partizan to the twenty-two-year-old's signature. Another talented youngster, 21-year-old Dejan Savićević, also arrived to the club during the same transfer window, but both promptly got sent to serve the mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint that kept them off the pitch for the entire league season.

Pančev debuted for his new club in 1989 and played three full seasons for ''crveno-beli'', scoring an incredible 84 goals from 91 league appearances, and winning the European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup in 1991.

Due to his phenomenal strike rate, during the early 1990s, he was widely recognized as one of the best strikers in the world. Displaying great goalscoring instincts and predatory skills, he got nicknamed ''Kobra'' by the Serbian sports media. Red Star fans remember him as the player who scored the winning penalty in the 1991 European Cup Final, bringing Red Star the most prestigious trophy in European football for the first time in its 50-year existence.

Pančev was the highest scorer in top-division European football in the 1990–91 season with 34 goals, and should have won the European Golden Boot award. However, UEFA decided to make the competition unofficial for the season because of suspect scoring sprees in Cyprus. Pančev did not get the prize at the time, but received it fifteen years later on 3 August 2006 in Skopje. The Golden Boot was presented at a special gala by Michel Platini, Dragan Stojković and Dragan Džajić.

On 4 March 1992, Pančev scored two goals for Red Star to defeat Panathinaikos 2–0 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens in a European Cup match. The spotlight was on him because upon completing the forms to gain entry in Greece, he wrote his nationality as ''Macedonian''. This made great havoc among the Greeks, he was detained several hours before being allowed to cross the border. In an interview after the duel he would say, "There is a saying that luck follows the brave. I was happy to score two goals before 80,000 spectators in Athens and Red Star to win 2–0. After that, the earth could open up and I did not mind."

Inter Milan

Over the summer 1992 off-season, soon to be twenty-seven-year-old Pančev signed for Internazionale in a high-profile transfer with the ITL14 billion ( £7 million) fee paid to Red Star. Inter thus beat out Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and AC Milan, each of whom had approached the player over the preceding six months. Arriving at a club that had finished the previous league season in disappointing eighth place (which precipitated a major squad overhaul with the famous German triumvirate of Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, and Andreas Brehme leaving San Siro and head coach Luis Suárez getting fired), Pančev was naturally looked to for goals as suggested by his glowing reputation from the Yugoslav First League and Red Star's European campaigns. Upon signing, the club owner and president Ernesto Pellegrini even compared him to Paolo Rossi, giving an indication of the level of expectation thrust upon the Macedonian.

1992–93 season

Joining a squad that in addition to new head coach Osvaldo Bagnoli also featured plenty of new faces in the player personnel, the conventional wisdom was that such circumstances would work in Pančev's favour in terms of fitting in. His competitors for spots upfront were all new arrivals as well: Uruguayan Rubén Sosa who came from Lazio, the Italian 1990 World Cup hero Salvatore Schillaci joining from Juventus, and, depending on formation, even Russian attacking midfielder Igor Shalimov who was acquired from Foggia.

However, in contrast to club president Pellegrini, head coach Bagnoli wasn't as taken with Pančev's playing style and already during pre-season reproached the player for lack of movement. The highly-touted forward made his Inter debut during late August 1992 in Coppa Italia away at Reggiana, scoring a hat-trick in a 4–3 Inter win. A week later, he added two more goals in the return leg at home, leading the ''nerazzurri'' to a 4–2 win.

The league season started several days later away at Udinese with Pančev getting a start alongside Schillaci before getting subbed off in the 81st minute for Davide Fontolan with the score tied at 1–1; by the end, Udinese managed to score once more for a 2–1 win. The following week, at home versus Cagliari, he got the start again next to Schillaci before again being subbed off for Fontolan, this time in the 79th minute with Inter leading 2–1. For the week 3 fixture away at Napoli, Pančev found himself out of the matchday squad and the same scenario repeated for the subsequent five league matches as head coach Bagnoli completely removed him from consideration for matchday squads, thereby handing Rubén Sosa the other forward spot, alongside automatic choice Schillaci.

After almost two months without competitive football, Pančev got reinstated courtesy of an injury suffered by Bagnoli's preferred centre forward Schillaci, with the head coach giving the Macedonian a full ninety minute performance in a 0–0 home draw versus Sampdoria. The following league match was the Derby della Madonnina—against bitter city rivals, San Siro co-tenants, and defending league champions A.C. Milan—which Pančev began on the bench before being brought on unexpectedly in the 37th minute due to Sosa's injury; the contests ended 1–1 with Pančev still scoreless in the league. With Schillaci and Sosa both out injured, Pančev started the following league fixture versus Brescia in late November 1992 alongside Fontolan; Inter won 2–1, but the player again failed to score. The following two matches, losses to Ancona and Lazio, Pančev played alongside Fontolan as Schillaci and Sosa were still recovering. The return of Sosa in early January 1993, relegated Pančev to the bench while Inter finally showed some improved form with four straight league wins.

It was apparent the Macedonian was experiencing major problems adapting to stringent Italian league defences and his goal output suddenly became nonexistent. Simultaneously, his relationship with Bagnoli took a turn for the worse, as the two started butting heads, often publicly. Pančev apparently even resorted to faking an illness in order to avoid sitting on the bench. The Italian press got down on the striker too, derisively modifying his Red Star moniker ''Il Cobra'' to ''Il Ramarro'' ( green lizard). In December 1992, Pančev had an offer from Alex Ferguson's Manchester United but opted to remain at San Siro and continue fighting for a spot at Inter.

He'd wait until late January 1993 to net his first league goal, which came at home versus Udinese. Parallel to Pančev's struggles, Inter posted a decent league season behind Sosa's goalscoring exploits, and with no distraction of European football finished league runners-up to cross-town rival A.C. Milan. Overall, during his debut season, Pančev appeared in just twelve league matches for the ''Nerazzurri'', scoring one league goal in addition to five goals in four Coppa Italia appearances (second best striker of the latter competition).

1993–94 season

Pančev remained part of the Inter squad for the 1993–94 season, although he was completely out of the first-team picture as his relationship with Bagnoli deteriorated to a point of no repair. Furthermore, the arrival of £12 million signing Dennis Bergkamp from Ajax relegated the Macedonian even further down the pecking order. He did not get any league appearances during the first half of the season nor did he get any action in the UEFA Cup.

In January 1994, during the league winter break, Pančev got loaned out to German team VfB Leipzig