Milovan Jakšić

Milovan Jakšić (Serbian Cyrillic: Mилoвaн Jaкшић) (September 21, 1909, in Kolašin, Principality of Montenegro–December 25, 1953 in Alexandria, Egypt) was a Serbian football goalkeeper.

Remembered mostly as "El Grande Milovan", nickname earned for his excellent saves during his participation in the Uruguay 1930 FIFA World Cup, he is considered as one of the major contributors for Yugoslavia archiving of the semi-finals in the tournament.

Being of medium stature, but very strong physically, his main characteristics were his bravure and excellent reflexes. He spend 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 he played a few months of the 1934-35 season, and SK Ljubljana at the end of his career.

He played a total of nine matches for the Yugoslavia national football team. His debut was on April 13, 1930, in a friendly against Bulgaria in Belgrade, a 6-1 win, and his fairway match was on September 2, 1934, in another friendly, this time in Prague, against Czechoslovakia, a 3-1 loss. Despite all the competition that he faced for the national team goalkeeping place, he was the one chosen to be the main goalkeeper at the already mentioned 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, he kept connected to football, after the II world war he first established Red Star Belgrade football club in March 1945 and became the Technical Director of, after he become the President of the Football Coaching Federation of Yugoslavia, between 1950 and 1953. The trip to Cairo, Egypt, with Red Star Belgrade in winter of 1953, where he unexpectedly died of a heart-attack.

External sources

• Profile at Serbian Federation site.
• Stats at FIFA.com.

Persondata
Name	Jaksic, Milovan
Alternative names	Jaksa, El Grande Milovan
Short description
Date of birth	21. September 1909
Place of birth	Kolasin, Montenegro
Date of death	25. December 1953
Place of death	Alexandria, Egypt