Milovan Jakšić

Milovan Jakšić

Personal information
Full name	Milovan Jakšić
Date of birth	(1909-09-21)21 September 1909
Place of birth	Kolašin, Principality of Montenegro
Date of death
Place of death	Alexandria, Republic of Egypt
Height
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1930-1939	Soko	500	(0)
1934-1935	→ Slavia Prague (loan)
	SK Ljubljana
International career
1930–1934	Yugoslavia	9	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Milovan Jakšić (Serbian Cyrillic: Mилoвaн Jaкшић) (September 21, 1909, in Kolašin, Principality of Montenegro–December 25, 1953 in Cairo, Egypt) was a Serbian football goalkeeper.

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

Being of medium stature, but very strong physically, Milovan's main characteristics were his bravure and excellent reflexes. Milovan spent most of his career playing in BASK Belgrade, named SK Soko before 1931, where he played until 1939. The only exceptions were the Czechoslovak SK Slavia Praha, where Milovan Jaksic played a few months of the 1934-35 season, and SK Ljubljana at the end of his career.

Milovan Jaksic played a total of nine matches for the Yugoslavia national football team. His debut was on April 13, 1930, in a friendly game against Bulgaria in Belgrade, a 6-1 win, and his fairway match was on September 2, 1934, in 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, Milovan Jaksic 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".

After retiring, Milovan Jaksic stayed connected to football. After the World War II, in March 1945, Milovan Jaksic established Red Star Belgrade football club, and was the club's Technical Director. Milovan Jaksic 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, Egypt, where he accompanied Red Star Belgrade.

External sources

• Profile at Serbian Federation site.
• Stats at FIFA.com.