Aleksandar Luković (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

: Александар Луковић; born 23 October 1982) is a Serbian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player who played as a defender. He is the manager of

Serbia national under-19 football team The Serbia national under-19 football team () is the national under-19 football team of Serbia and is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia. The team is considered the successor to the Serbia and Montenegro national under-19 football ...

. He appeared in the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

Club career

Early career

Luković started his career at hometown club Sloga Kraljevo. In 2002, he was signed by

Crvena Zvezda Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

. He played his first

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

match on 15 August 2002 after he substituted

Nemanja Vidić Nemanja Vidić ( sr-Cyrl, Немања Видић, ; born 21 October 1981) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Widely considered to be one of the greatest defenders in history, Vidić is best known for his t ...

at second half. Crvena Zvezda won 2–0 to

FC Kairat Football Club Kairat () is a professional football club based in Almaty, which plays in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Kazakh football. Founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma-Ata, they became Urozhay in 1955 and Kairat in 1956. ...

Udinese

In mid-2006, after signing a pre-contract with Udinese, Luković was on loan to Ascoli from Red Star Belgrade in order for the club to "borrow" the non-EU registration quota of Ascoli for

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

. He was "loaned" to Udinese from Ascoli in January transfer window. On 27 January 2007, he played his first

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

match for Udinese against

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. He was signed permanently in mid-2007 by Udinese from Red Star.

Zenit Saint Petersburg

On 29 July 2010, it was officially announced that Luković signed a four-year contract with

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (, ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, according to some Russian sources), the club plays in the Russian Pr ...

for undisclosed fee. Initially he was a constant starter for the team but eventually got reduced playing time with the arrival of

Domenico Criscito Domenico "Mimmo" Criscito (; born 30 December 1986) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a left-back. A versatile player, Criscito was effective both offensively and defensively and was also capable of playing as a wing-bac ...

to the club for left-back position.

Return to Red Star Belgrade

After several consecutive transfer windows of rumors regarding his return, it was announced on 29 December 2014 that Luković signed a 2.5-year contract with Red Star. On 6 February 2015, in a friendly match against

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

, Luković suffered a serious injury which sidelined him until the summer of 2015. On 23 August 2015, Luković finally made his first appearance for Red Star since his injury, and was applauded by the whole stadium when he came in as a substitute for

Savo Pavićević Savo Pavićević (Cyrillic: Саво Павићевић, ; born 11 December 1980) is a Serbian-born Montenegrin retired football defender. Club career Pavićević, after playing for almost a decade for Hajduk Kula, played for Vojvodina and for ...

. After the end of contract with club in summer 2017, Luković left the club as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

. In July same year, Luković retired from playing football professionally.

International career

He made his international debut against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

on 15 August 2005. He played a part during 2010 World Cup qualifying and mostly partnered Nemanja Vidić in central defense as

Aleksandar Kolarov Aleksandar Kolarov (, ; born 10 November 1985) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a left back. He is the current assistant coach of Serie A club Inter Milan. Kolarov began his career at Red Star Belgrade, but he did not br ...

was preferred at left back. In June 2010, he was selected in Serbia's squad for the

, where he appeared in group stage matches against

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He was sent off in Serbia's opening match against Ghana on 13 June 2010. In March 2011, two weeks before a crucial Euro 2012 qualifier against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, Luković surprised everyone by deciding to retire from the national team at the age of 28, choosing to focus on his club Zenit. On the same occasion, his teammate Danko Lazović also made the same announcement. He earned a total of 27 caps (no goals).

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Red Star Belgrade *

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League (), also known as Mozzart SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Serbia and the highest level of the Serbian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a sys ...

: 2005–06, 2015–16 *

Serbian Cup The Serbian Cup ( Serbian: Куп Србије / Kup Srbije), also known as Mozzart Serbian Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the national football cup of Serbia. The winner of the competition gets a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round. ...

: 2001–02, 2005–06 Zenit Saint Petersburg *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, 2011–12 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Rambler Russian ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Individual *

Serbian SuperLiga Team of the Season The Serbian SuperLiga Team of the Season is an annual award given to a set of 11 footballers in the top tier of Football in Serbia, Serbian football, the Serbian SuperLiga, SuperLiga, who are seen to be the best 11 players of the calendar season. S ...

: 2015–16

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lukovic, Aleksandar 1982 births Living people Footballers from Kraljevo Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football central defenders Serbia and Montenegro men's footballers Serbia and Montenegro men's international footballers Serbian men's footballers Serbia men's international footballers 2010 FIFA World Cup players FK Sloga Kraljevo players FK Jedinstvo Ub players Red Star Belgrade footballers Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Udinese Calcio players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Zenit-2 Saint Petersburg players Serbian SuperLiga players Serie A players Russian Premier League players Serbian expatriate men's footballers Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Serbian football managers