Slobodan Rajković

Infobox Football biography
playername = Slobodan Rajković


fullname = Slobodan Rajković
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1989|2|3
cityofbirth = Belgrade
countryofbirth = SFR Yugoslavia
height = Height|m=1.91
position = Defender
currentclub = FC Twente
clubnumber = 5
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 2004–2005
2005–
2005–2007
2007–2008
2008–2009
clubs = OFK Beograd
Chelsea
→ OFK Beograd (loan)
→ PSV Eindhoven (loan)
→ FC Twente (loan)
caps(goals) = 026 0(1)
000 0(0)
036 0(0)
013 0(0)
000 0(0)
nationalyears = 2004–2005
2005–
2008–
nationalteam = Serbia U17
Serbia U21
Serbia
nationalcaps(goals) = 005 (0)

003 (1)
pcupdate =
ntupdate =

Slobodan Rajković (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Рајковић), (born February 3, 1989 in Belgrade) is a Serbian football player, who plays for FC Twente, on loan from Chelsea.

Club career

Beginning his career with OFK Beograd, the word soon got out about Rajković being an extremely talented youngster. He was thus included in the club's first team at the age of 15. During his second season in the first team, Rajković's reputation grew so such that in November 2005 English club Chelsea decide to pay €5.2m (₤3.8m) for the sixteen year old centre-half; a world record at the time for a player under eighteen years of age.

Under the terms of the deal, Rajković stayed at OFK Beograd as a loaned player from Chelsea until the end of the 2006-07 Serbian Superliga season.

During June 2007, Chelsea decided to loan Rajković to PSV Eindhoven ahead of the 2007-08 season, as part of the deal surrounding Alex's move to Chelsea. [ [http://jesternix.net/pipermail/chelsea_jesternix.net/2007-June/028599.html Blues to place defender at PSV] by Sky Sports]

After the year-long loan spell at PSV, the Dutch club wanted to extend the loan period for another year, but Chelsea declined due to the lack of playing time Rajković was receiving in his season at Eindhoven.

Rajković, however, still returned to the Eredivisie. On July 9, 2008, FC Twente announced that they agreed a 1-year loan deal with Chelsea. [ [http://www.fctwente.nl/nieuws/index.php?item=7410 Welkom op de officiële website van FC Twente '65! ] ]

On September 4, 2008, Slobodan Rajković was banned from playing football for a year by FIFA. The punishment is in response to allegations that the 19-year-old spat in the face of referee Abdullah Al Hilali. The young defender maintains that he is innocent and has decided to appeal the judgement.

International career

By the age of sixteen he was a regular in the Serbia national under-21 football team. He was the youngest player ever to appear in a qualifying match of the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. [ [http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/Under21/Finals/newsId=413195.html U21 Championship: Facts and figures] by UEFA]

References

External links

*reprezentacija|Rajkovic_Slobodan
* [http://www.footballdatabase.com/index.php?page=player&Id=8038&pn=Slobodan_Rajkovi%C4%87 RAKJOVIĆ (Slobodan Rajković) - OFK Beograd and Serbia]