World Soccer - UK (2021-03)

then the possibility to prepare better. We will be
fresher, coming out straight after pre-season
preparations. Milan are a good team, there are
two matches and both teams will try to outplay
each other.
We don’t fear anybody, but we respect
everybody. I am a realist in life and I am aware
that we do not have the right to threaten them,
but we won’t give up. We’ll look for our
chances.

During your career you had the luck and
privilege to work with several top
coaches. What would you take from each
of them and apply to your work?
I took patience from [Sven-Goran] Eriksson,
work on the pitch from [Roberto] Mancini. From
[Jose] Mourinho I would take character, and
from [Sinisa] Mihajlovic perseverance and never
giving up. After I joined Red Star, my former
coaches wished me lots of luck, I also received
some advice, but it’s me who makes decisions
and it will stay like that.

What can you say about the period you
spent working for UEFA, as advisor for
president Aleksander Ceferin and about

your experience working on the

development of youth football?

My role was to advise people about youth

football and I believe that I helped them in

developing players in a sensitive age. I played

football for over 20 years and it was time to

give something back to football, which gave me

a lot. It was a nice experience, but now I am at

Red Star and I’m fully focused on that.

Please tell us a few words about your

project Deki5 (football camps for kids).

This was the third year of the camp, and for me

it was the best and most successful one. In the

first two years we maybe had bigger and more

impressive numbers, but in spite of coronavirus,

this year was the best. On two locations in

Serbian mountain resorts [Zlatibor and

Divcibare], our camp passed by without a single

problem, without a single case of COVID-19;

and for that we owe

the biggest gratitude

to the children and

our coaches who were

guiding them through

all challenges of the

pandemic. We made it

and I’m proud. We

again loved football, we again learned to

smile on the pitch, we learned a lot about

fair-play, psychology, protection on

the internet, nutrition – and we also

beat corona.

Interview by Vladimir Novak

Leaders...Stankovic with his captain and goalkeeper Milan

Borjan after winning last season’s title

“The Champions League is the

elite competition. Judging by

history and reputation, Red Star

belongs to this competition”

Hot-head...Stankovic

shouts instructions

to his team from the

stands after being

red carded