Toni Savevski ( mk, Тони Савевски; born 14 June 1963) is a Macedonian football player who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Savevski is widely regarded as one of the best foreign players to have played in the Greek football league. After retiring from as a footballer in 2001 he became manager and managed several clubs in Cyprus, most notably Omonia.

Club career

Savevski was born in

Bitola Bitola (; mk, Битола ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba (North Macedonia), Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of th ...

SR Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...

. He started his career in Pelister Bitola and then played for Vardar Skopje, where he won the league in 1987, but due to a point deduction punishment of

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: ** AK Partizan, athletics **Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling **Džudo Klub Partizan, judo ** FK Partizan, association fo ...

was overturned, the title eventually was awarded to the latter. In winter 1988 he signed for

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelf ...

at the request of

Dušan Bajević Dušan "Duško" Bajević ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Бајевић, ; gr, Ντούσαν Μπάγεβιτς, ''Doúsan Báyevits''; born 10 December 1948) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. He is regarded as the most succes ...

. Savevski quickly developed into one of the team's consistent players and, alongside

Stelios Manolas Stelios Manolas ( el, Στέλιος Μανωλάς, born 13 July 1961) is a Greek former international football player who played as a centre back for AEK Athens and a manager. Arguably the best Greek defender of his era, being one of the few ...

, became the permanent leaders of the great AEK of the 90s. He combined very well and assisted all the great stikers that played in the club during his era, such as

Batista Batista is a Spanish or Portuguese surname. Notable persons with the name include: * Batista (footballer, born 1955), Brazilian football player * Dave Bautista, American actor and professional wrestler, also known as Batista * Edina Alves Batis ...

, Dimitriadis, Alexandris,

Kostis Kostis ( el, Κωστής) is a hypocorism of the Greek name Konstantinos ( Constantine). Notable people with the name include: Given name * Kostis Adosidis Pasha (1818–1895), Prince of Samos * Kostis Chatzidakis (born 1965), Greek politician ...

Nikolaidis Nikolaidis ( el, Νικολαΐδης) is a Greek surname of Pontic origin. It is a patronymic surname that literally means "the son of Nikolaos (Nicolaos)", equivalent to English Nicholson or Nixon, and can also be found transliterated as Nicolaidi ...

. He also scored some very important goals, the most important of all being this against

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

, for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

qualifiers in the summer of 1994. He served AEK for 13 years winning the league four times and the

Greek cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most i ...

three times. He is the third foreigner in appearances in the history of the league, behind Krzysztof Warzycha and Predrag Đorđević. Savevski urgently stopped football in the yellow-black jersey in January 2001 and within a few days he became the coach of the team, as a "duo" with Eugène Gerards, a position in which he remained until the end of the season.

International career

He made his senior debut for

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

in an August 1988

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

away against Switzerland and earned a total of 2 caps for the team, scoring no goals, before debuting for

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

in an October 1994 European Championship qualification match against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. He earned another 8 caps and his final international was a September 2000

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

match against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

Managerial career

In January 2001, after the then coach AEK Athens, Giannis Pathiakakis resigned, Savevski retired as a footballer overnight, in order to take the position of coach on the yellow-black bench, with Eugène Gerards as technical advisor. In the summer of 2001, the administrative instability of the club resulted in the Savevski and Gerards leaving. In the season 2001–02 he was the coach for

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Div ...

. In 2002 he coached Omonia, where in 2003 he won the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus official ...

and the Cypriot Super Cup, before leaving in 2004. In the summer of the same year, he assumed the position of technical director of the AEK Athens academies. During his tenure, the infrastructure departments of the club were organized and developed. Players such as Sokratis Papastathopoulos,

Kostas Manolas Konstantinos "Kostas" Manolas ( el, Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Μανωλάς; ; born 14 June 1991) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for UAE Pro League club Sharjah. Club career AEK Athens 2009� ...

, Viktor Klonaridis,

Panagiotis Tachtsidis Panagiotis Tachtsidis ( el, Παναγιώτης Ταχτσίδης; born 15 February 1991) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Emirati club Khor Fakkan. Club career AEK Athens Tachtsidis was scouted by Toni Savevs ...

and

Vasileios Pliatsikas Vasilios Pliatsikas ( el, Βασίλειος Πλιάτσικας; born 14 April 1988) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a centre-back. Club career AEK Athens Pliatsikas began his AEK career in 2005, making his way up from the re ...

were the results of his work. In the summer of 2010, Savevski was promoted to the position of head scouting of the team. By September 2012, he returned to Omonia as head coach until December 2013.

Honours

As a player: ;AEK Athens *

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

: 1988–89, 1991–92,

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

, 1993–94 *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most i ...

: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1999–2000 *

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup ( el, Σούπερ Καπ Ελλάδος), officially known as the Cup of Friendship and Solidarity ( el, Κύπελλο Φιλίας και Αλληλεγγύης) was a Greek association football one-match competition which w ...

: 1989, 1996 *

Greek League Cup The EPAE Cup, known as the Greek League Cup, a now defunct football competition, took place only once, in the year 1989–90 season. AEK Athens is the only winner of the League Cup, beating Panionios (3–3 and 3–1 on penalties), Aris (5–2), ...

: 1990 *

Pre-Mediterranean Cup The Pre-Mediterranean Cup was an association football friendly tournament competition hosted by the Hellenic Football Federation in Athens. In June 1991, the one and only Pre-Mediterranean cup was conducted in Georgios Kamaras Stadium, the ho ...

: 1991 As a coach: ;Omonia *

: 2002–03 * Cypriot Super Cup: 2003

Personal life

Toni had humble upbringings and grew up in Bitola. He later moved to Athens, Greece after his first son, Victor was born. His second son was born in Athens, Greece

References

External links

* *
Profile at MacedonianFootball.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savevski, Toni 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Bitola Association football midfielders Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Macedonian footballers North Macedonia international footballers Dual internationalists (football) FK Pelister players FK Vardar players AEK Athens F.C. players Yugoslav First League players Super League Greece players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Macedonian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Greece Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Macedonian football managers AEK Athens F.C. managers Apollon Limassol FC managers AC Omonia managers Macedonian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Greece Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus