BIOGRAPHY
ex-Partizan favourite Savo Milosevic, who
just happened to come from the same
region of Bosnia as the boy and knew his
family. Milosevic made his pitch but it was
to no avail – Red Star was the only game
in town.
Not that Milosevic – who these days
is Partizan’s coach – has ever borne
a grudge. During a spell as Serbia’s
technical director for youth and under-21
teams, he developed a good working
relationship with Jovic and has always
sung the golden boy’s praises, once
stating: “I’ve never seen a striker like Jovic
in my entire life. He puts all his chances
away. He’s great at selecting the best
possible option in front of goal.
“He never fails to take the right course
of action, whether it be right-foot, left-
foot or head. He chooses the best. Therein a trial game and afterwards I was told
he would be paid €50 a match and we’d
also have €20 a game in travel expenses.
That’s right, €50 in 2004. That was no
small amount.”
Just 12 months later he was snapped
up by leading Belgrade club Red Star.
His sponsor was the club’s long-serving
youth coach and talent-spotter Tomislav
Milicevic, an iconic figure at Red Star for
over three decades and the “discoverer”
of a string of top performers, among
them midfielders Vladimir Jugovic, Dejan
Stankovic and Milan Jankovic, front-
runners Marko Pantelic and Nikola
Lazetic, and defender Dusan Basta.
Milicevic first came across the
adolescent Jovic during a tournament in
Bijeljina, a town close to the youngster’s
home. Milicevic says he only needed 10
minutes to fall under the Jovic spell and
was heard to utter a pithy conclusion:
“This is one dangerous player. He must
come with us.”
Milicevic later told the Serb tabloidNovosti: “What I immediately noticed
about Luka was the positional sensibility
he had for scoring goals. He had the
same instinct for putting the ball in the
net as old-time strikers like Gerd Muller
[the legendary German marksman] and
Slobodan Santrac [a prolific finisher with
OFK Belgrade and Yugoslavia in the
1960s and 70s].
“He was a quiet boy, very modest. He
already knew what he wanted from life- to be a footballer.’
As a rabid supporter of Red Star, the
youngster was in seventh heaven to wear
the red-and-white stripes of his heroes.
Yet he could quite easily have traced
another early-years career path. Prior
to pledging himself to Red Star, his father
was talking with the other big Belgrade
club, Partizan, whose ace in the hole was
the wad of cash they were waving, some
€200 a month.
Partizan, in full charm-offensive mode,
thought they were almost home and dry
when they arranged for Jovic to meet
with Serb international striker and
DEC 11, 2013
Gets a hat-trick for
Serbia under-17s in
a 4-1 victory over
Croatia under-17s.MAY 28, 2014
Scores on his Red
Star debut, less than
three minutes after
appearing as a sub
against Vojvodina.JUL 28, 2014
Part of the Serbia
squad that reaches
the semi-finals of
the Euro Under-19
Championship.OCT 18, 2014
At 16 years, nine
months and 25 days,
becomes the
youngest player
to appear in the
“Eternal derby”
against Partizan.MAR 20, 2016
Makes his Benfica
debut, as a sub, in
a 1-0 win away
at Boavista.JUN 27, 2018
Joins Eintracht
Frankfurt on a
two-season loan.Timeline
Red star...his early
days in BelgradeRestricted...his
chances at Benfica
(above) were limited“I’ve never seen a striker like Jovic in my entire life. He
puts all his chances away...there isn’t a player in the world
right now who comes close to Jovic in this part of the game”
Savo Milosevic