Milovan Jakšić (

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 ...

: Милован Јакшић; 21 September 1909 – 25 December 1953) was a Yugoslav

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Remembered mostly as ''El Grande Milovan'', the nickname he earned for his excellent saves in the game that Yugoslavia won against Brasil in the First World Cup in Uruguay

1930 FIFA World Cup The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural 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 Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930. FIFA, ...

. He is considered one of the major contributors for Yugoslavia reaching the semi-finals in that tournament.

Club career

Being of medium stature, but very strong physically, Jakšić's main characteristics were his bravure and excellent reflexes. Jakšić spent most of his career playing in

FK BASK FK BASK TEK ( sr-Cyrl, ФК БАСК ТЕК) is a football club from Savski Venac, Belgrade, Serbia. It is one of the oldest clubs in Serbia. The club currently competes in the Serbian League Belgrade (3rd tier). BASK are the initials of ''Beog ...

, named SK Soko before 1931, where he played until 1939. The only exceptions were the Czechoslovak

SK Slavia Praha Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

, where Jakšić played a few months of the 1934-35 season, and SK Ljubljana and ND Ilirija at the end of his career.

International career

Jakšić played a total of nine matches for the

Yugoslavia national football team The Yugoslavia national football team; ; ; represented Yugoslavia in international association football. Although the team mainly represented the pre-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the post-war SFR Yugoslavia, various iterations of the state ...

. His debut was on 13 April 1930, in a friendly game against Bulgaria in Belgrade, a 6–1 win, and his fairway match was on 2 September 1934, another friendly game, this time in Prague, against Czechoslovakia, a 3–1 loss. Despite all the competition that he faced for the national team goalkeeping place, Jakšić was selected to be the main goalkeeper at the 1930 World Cup. Having displayed magnificent exhibitions in all the matches at the tournament, it is specially remembered by his contributions in the match against Brazil, and it was after that match, that the delighted journalists started calling him by his new nickname: "El Grande Milovan".

Post-playing career

After retiring, Jakšić stayed connected to football. After the World War II, in March 1945,Jakšić was also the President of the Football Coaching Federation of Yugoslavia, from 1950 until the winter of 1953, when he died unexpectedly of a heart-attack during the football tournament in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, where he accompanied

Red Star Belgrade 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 ...

References

External links

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Milovan Jakšić
at

FIFA.com The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

(archived) 1909 births 1953 deaths People from Kolašin Serbs of Montenegro Men's association football goalkeepers Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers 1930 FIFA World Cup players FK BASK players SK Slavia Prague players ND Ilirija 1911 players Yugoslav First League players Red Star Belgrade non-playing staff {{Serbia-footy-goalkeeper-stub