Simon Vukčević (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Симон Вукчевић; born 29 January 1986) is a Montenegrin football player who currently plays for Sporting Clube de Portugal
One of the most exciting players of recent times in Serbia and Montenegro,citation needed attacking midfielder Vukčević started learning his craft at FK Budućnost Podgorica before moving to the Serbian capital to join FK Partizan youth system at 16.
Simon's father Ilija 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 Montenegrin 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, saidcitation needed 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. He 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 Vukčević 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 25 June 2007, Saturn reportedly agreed a €4 million transfer fee with Sporting Clube de Portugal, but the deal stalled when the Russian club also demanded 20% of any subsequent transfer fees involving Vukčević. Eventually, on 28 June, both clubs agreed a €2 million fee in addition to an agreement about splitting his future transfer fee 50-50.citation needed
Vukčević scored on his debut in a pre-season friendly against Lille OSC and soon made himself a mainstay of Paulo Bento’s team. His Portuguese Liga debut came against Académica de Coimbra in the season opener where he was man of the matchvague, 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 Benfica on 2 March 2008, which ended in a 1-1 home draw. On 27 January, he 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 2008 transfer window, Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers were at the top of the list of clubs reportedly interested in signing the Montenegrin player. Nonetheless, Sporting reiterated their desire to keep Vukčević for the 2008-09 season. Furthermore, his contract has a minimum-fee release clause of €20 million (in stark contrast to the £5 million that the English clubs were reportedly prepared to offer).
At the start of the 2008-09 season, Vukčević got involved in a controversial dispute with Sporting manager Paulo Bento over losing his place in the starting XI. After playing 45 minutes as a substitute in Sporting's 2-0 win over Belenenses, Vukčević declared his intention to leave the club in the December transfer window.3 On 21 November 2008, without any warning, he missed training to join his national team one day before expected. Sporting fined him €5,000 and placed him on individual training until further notice. On 29 November, after holding a press conference stating his wish to remain in Sporting and apologizing for his behavior, he was allowed to train with the rest of the team. Sporting told himcitation needed that "words impress no one," and his future on the club would depend on how he took this second chance. On 5 December, he substituted teammate Hélder Postiga in the 75th minute of the away league game against Estrela da Amadora and scored a goal two minutes later, the last of Sporting's 3-1 win.
National team
Youth level
At 18, Vukčević was selected by head coach Vladimir Petrović to be part of Serbia and Montenegro Under-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 surprisinglycitation needed, 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 was hoping to further hone his talents with the Under-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.
Vukčević 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.
Full 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 came at the age of 18 during July 2004 friendly, as a substitute against Slovakia at Kirin Cup in Fukuoka, Japan. He was among the slew of younger players from domestic league or those who have been out of the national team picture (Bojan Zajić, Đorđe Jokić, Bojan Neziri, Jovan Markoski, Nenad Jestrović, Dragan Šarac, Miloš Kolaković, Aleksandar Pantić, etc.) to get an opportunity to show what they can do at the said cup. Couple of days later Vukčević featured in another Kirin Cup match - this time versus Japan, again as a sub. As his form at Partizan stabilized, he received another call-up in February 2005 for a friendly at Bulgaria, which was his first national team start before being substituted for Zvonimir Vukić. Couple of months later in June 2005, coach Petković gave Vukčević his competitive debut, putting him in for Ognjen Koroman during the second half of the 2006 World Cup qualifier at home versus Belgium. Serbia-Montenegro played to a sluggish and forgettable 0-0 draw as Vukčević almost scored on his competitive debut when Belgian keeper misjudged his harmless free kick and had to scramble back to push it against the cross bar.4 Four days later, Vukčević was on a plane to Toronto where he played the full 90 minutes in a friendly versus Italy at the Rogers Centre. This also turned out to be his last ever appearance for Serbia-Montenegro. His club form at Partizan took a dip in the first part of 2005-06 league season and his transfer to Saturn failed to improve his performances during the early part of 2006 Russian league season, all of which meant that he wasn't getting any more senior call-ups.
As Montenegro seceded from the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro in May 2006, and 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
References
 FM 09 Match Rating: 9.9 10 Vukcevics 4 Goals: 2x ...&link=http://www.youtube.com/v/TenR3W2yehA&fs=1&source=uds&autoplay=1&thumb=http://0.gvt0.com/vi/TenR3W2yehA/default.jpg&celebrity=Simon Vukcevic)
