Milovan Jakšić
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Milovan Jakšić | ||
| Date of birth | 21 September 1909 | ||
| Place of birth | Kolašin, Principality of Montenegro | ||
| Date of death | 25 December 1953 (aged 44) | ||
| Place of death | Alexandria, Republic of Egypt | ||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1930–1939 | Soko | 500 | (0) |
| 1934–1935 | → Slavia Prague (loan) | ||
| 1931-32 | → Ilirija | ||
| SK Ljubljana | |||
| National team | |||
| 1930–1934 | Kingdom of Yugoslavia | 17 | (1) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only | |||
Milovan Jakšić (Serbian Cyrillic: Mилoвaн Jaкшић) (September 21, 1909, in Kolašin, Principality of Montenegro–December 25, 1953 in Cairo, Egypt) was a Montenegrin 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, Jakšić's main characteristics were his bravure and excellent reflexes. Jakšić 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 Jakšić played a few months of the 1934-35 season,and SK Ljubljana and ND Ilirija at the end of his career.
Milovan Jakšić played a total of seventeen 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, 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".
After retiring, Jaksic stayed connected to football. After the World War II, in March 1945, he established Red Star Belgrade football club, and was the club's Technical Director. 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, Egypt, where he accompanied Red Star Belgrade.
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