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Simon Vukčević (Serbian Cyrillic: Симон Вукчевић), (born January 29, 1986 in Titograd, Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Montenegrin football player, currently playing for Sporting C.P.

One of the most exciting players of recent times in Serbia and Montenegro, attacking midfielder Vukčević started learning his craft at FK Budućnost Podgorica before moving to the Serbian capital to join FK Partizan youth system at the tender age of 16.

Simon's father Ilija Vukčević is former sporting director at FK Zeta.

Club career

Partizan Belgrade

Blessed with boundless confidence, he spent two years in the youth ranks in Belgrade before bursting into the first team, scoring and creating goals from midfield. He was awarded the Number 1 shirt, in recognition of his popularity among Partizan supporters. His best season with the club was the 2004/05 campaign during which he starred with eye-catching midfield displays in domestic league and UEFA Cup. However, the form didn't spill over into 2005/06 season as Vukčević faced criticism over his excessive solo play and poor shot selection, as well as overall deteriorating form.

He was nominated for the Best Young Player Award in early 2006.

Saturn Ramenskoe

Despite criticism, his move to Russian side FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast in January 2006 came as somewhat of a shock. The transfer, said to have cost the Russian club about €7 million failed to raise Vukčević's form to what it once was at Partizan. In late July 2006, he was even demoted to Saturn's reserve squad with coach Vladimír Weiss publicly blasting him in the Russian press for displaying bad attitude in training and having a lack of manners[1].

Saturn finished the 2006 season at disappointing 11th place in Russian league, and as the 2007 season was about to start Vukčević expressed frustration with coach Weiss playing him out of position. Vukčević also said that coming to Saturn was a mistake and that he would have preferred a more ambitious club.[2]

The 2007 Russian League season started somewhat more promisingly for Simon as he finally got some playing time, which he used to finally score his first league goal. However, things soon went awry again and he completely lost a spot on the team, which prompted Saturn brass to start looking at options to move him. The departure of coach Weiss and subsequent arrival of Gadzhi Gadzhiev to Saturn bench hardly changed matters for Vukčević as he was completely out of the first team picture.

Sporting Clube de Portugal

On June 25 2007, Saturn reportedly agreed a €4 million transfer fee with Sporting Lisbon, but the deal stalled when the Russian club also demanded 20% of any subsequent transfer fees involving Vukčević. Eventually, on June 28, both clubs agreed a €2 million fee in addition to an agreement about splitting his future transfer fee 50-50.

Vukčević scored on his debut in a pre-season friendly against Lille OSC and wasted little time in making himself a mainstay of Paulo Bento’s team. His Portuguese Liga debut came against Académica in the season opener where he was man of the match, but the midfielder was especially impressive during a rough period Sporting endured around Christmas, several times carrying the side with his never-say-die attitude and eye for goal.

Vukčević scored an important goal against rivals SL Benfica on March 2, 2008, which ended in a 1-1 home draw. On January 27, he had scored against leaders FC Porto in Sporting's 2-0 win. He ranked the team's second best league scorer, only behind Liédson.

During the summer of 2008, Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers have been at the forefront of a list of clubs reportedly interested in signing the Montenegrin player. Nonetheless, Sporting have reiterated their desire to keep the player for the 2008/2009 season and Simon's contract has a minimum-fee release clause of €20 million (in stark contrast to the £5 million that these clubs were reportedly prepared to offer for the player).

At the start of the 2008-2009 season, Simon Vukcevic got involved in a controversial dispute with Sporting Lisbon manager Paulo Bento over losing his place in the starting 11. After playing 45 minutes as a substitute in Sporting Lisbon's 2-0 win over Belenenses, Vukcevic declared his intention to leave the club in the December transfer window. ^[1]

National team

Under-21 level

At the age of eighteen, Vukčević was selected by head coach Vladimir Petrović "Pižon" to be part of Serbia and Montenegro u-21 national team at the 2004 European Under-21 Football Championship in Germany. Vukčević had a notable tournament, scoring in a group stage loss to Italy (1-2), as well as in a semi-final penalty shootout against Sweden. Somewhat surprisingly, Serbia-Montenegro progressed all the way to the final where it lost again to the Italian team led by rising 21-year-old star Alberto Gilardino and 20-year-old Daniele De Rossi.

Barely two months later Vukčević was then part of the Serbian and Montenegrin 2004 Olympic football team that exited in the first round, finishing fourth in Group C behind gold-medal winners Argentina, Australia and Tunisia.

He also played for the national under-21 squad that qualified for another European championships, this time in Portugal 2006. Capped five times already for the senior national side, Vukčević, now 20, was hoping to further hone his talents with the u-21s in Portugal, but had a poor tournament. Following an indifferent display in the first group game (0-1 loss to Germany), head coach Dragan Okuka dropped him from the first team and Vukčević rarely featured in the side for the rest of the tournament. Serbia-Montenegro ended up progressing to semifinal where it lost on penalites to Ukraine.

Simon was once again called up, this time at Under-21 level, to represent Montenegro in its premier match against Bulgaria in the qualifications for Under-21 European Championship 2009, scoring a goal and missing a penalty on his debut in a 2-1 victory against the Bulgarians.

Senior level

Following his noted under-21 displays Vukčević started getting call-ups to the Serbia-Montenegro senior side from head coach Ilija Petković. His debut as a substitute came during February 2005 friendly against Bulgaria. All of his caps, five in total, came under Petković - most of them in friendly warm-up matches.

In light of Montenegro seceding from the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro in May 2006, and the fact that Vukčević is from Podgorica, he chose to play for Montenegro in the future. He played in their first ever game, when Montenegro won over Hungary (2:1) in a friendly match on March 24, 2007.

Statistics

(incomplete, only with Sporting)

External links

• FootballDatabase Vukčević's profile and stats
• Players to Watch: Simon Vukčević on FIFA World Cup
• U21 Profile at UEFA.com
• Vukcevic in Portuguese Liga 2007/08

References