Vladimir Stojković

Football player infobox| playername= Vladimir Stojković
fullname = Vladimir Stojković
nickname =


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1983|7|29
cityofbirth = Loznica
countryofbirth = SFR Yugoslavia
height = height|m=1.96
weight = convert|90|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
currentclub = Sporting C.P.
clubnumber = 34
position = Goalkeeper
youthyears = 1998-00 2000-03
youthclubs = FK Loznica Red Star Belgrade
years = 2003 2003-05 2005-2006 2006-2007
2007
2007-
clubs = → FK Leotar (loan) FK Zemun Red Star Belgrade
FC Nantes
→Vitesse (loan) Sporting C.P.
caps(goals) = 22 (0)
38 (0)
33 (0)
11 (0)
9 (0)
9 (0)

nationalyears = 2006-
nationalteam = Serbia flagicon|SRB
nationalcaps(goals) = 19 (0)
pcupdate = 22 June 2007
ntupdate = 14 September, 2008

Vladimir Stojković (Serbian Cyrillic: Владимир Стојковић; born July 28 1983 in Loznica, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian football player. He plays the position of goalkeeper for Sporting C.P. and the Serbia national football team.

Club career

Early years

Born into a sports family - his father is a former football goalkeeper, his mother a former handball player - Stojković's career path was almost predestined.

Stojković joined Red Star Belgrade at the age of ten, but was initially overshadowed by Vladimir Dišljenković. Dišljenković's graduation to the first team saw Stojković loaned out to gain experience at Bosnia-Herzegovnian side FK Leotar before joining FK Zemun.

Red Star Belgrade

After Red Star sold Dišljenković to Ukrainian side FC Metalurh Donetsk in summer 2005, Stojković returned to Belgrade and immediately impressed as Red Star won the league and cup double. He truly came into his own during 2005/06 season under head coach Walter Zenga.

Nantes Atlantique

Stojković moved to French Ligue 1 side FC Nantes Atlantique in the summer of 2006 (for a rumoured 3 million euros) to replace departing France goalkeeper Mickaël Landreau. After a promising first few matches, however, Stojković's form rapidly declined and he lost the starting jersey to 20-year-old understudy Vincent Briant shortly before the winter break. At the same time, a vicious rift emerged within the Nantes squad that led to a series of poor results and the dismissal of the club's manager. Stojković fell out of favor with new manager Michel Der Zakarian and was encouraged to seek a transfer or a loan as Nantes recruited France star Fabien Barthez out of retirement for the rest of the season.

Vitesse

In January 2007, Stojković was signed to Vitesse on a 6-month loan [ [http://www.jadransport.org/articles/3812.html Stojkovic signs for Vitesse] by JadranSport] .

On March 3, 2007, he played his first Eredivisie match for Vitesse against Excelsior Rotterdam [ cite web|title=Tactical Formation|work=Football-Lineups.com
url=http://www.football-lineups.com/games/?game=4358 | accessdate=March 12 | accessyear=2007]

porting CP

On July 11th, 2007 he signed a 5-year contract with Portuguese giants Sporting CP. Stojković started out well, but got injured towards the end of the half-season. After recovering, he never managed to reclaim his place in the starting eleven.

In July 2008 Sporting have allowed Stojković to go to Premier League side Everton for a trial with views to a loan deal. However, on July 22 he left his first training after only an hour, without any explanation. The club's spokesperson said that Everton lost interest and that they'd been warned earlier that "he's a complicated character". [http://www.blic.co.yu/sport.php?id=50260]

International career

Youth level

Stojković was a backup goalkeeper to Nikola Milojević in the Serbia-Montenegro squad that reached the final of the 2004 European Under-21 Championship in Germany. He didn't see a single minute of action.

Gradually, simultaneous to his Red Star breakthrough, Stojković got more opportunities and soon became an irreplaceable member of the national youth squad. Finally, in May 2006, he captained the Serbia-Montenegro u-21 team during 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Portugal in the absence of the suspended Danko Lazović. The team reached the semi-finals of the tournament.

enior level

Stojković was named as member of the Serbia-Montenegro team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. He didn't get any playing time, spending all three matches as Dragoslav Jevrić's backup.

After the arrival of Javier Clemente as head coach in summer 2006, Stojković became the first choice goalkeeper for the newly independent Serbia. He made hisdebut against Czech Republic on August 16 2006. Following the failure to qualify for Euro 2008, Clemente was replaced by Miroslav Đukić who also continued giving Stojković starting opportunities despite his irregular club appearances.

In July 2008 Stojković was named on the Serbian Olympic team for Beijing 2008.

References

External links

* [http://www.beliorlovi.net/vladimir-stojkovic.html players profile and stats]
*reprezentacija|Stojkovic%20Vladimir
* [http://www.sporting.pt/Info/Futebol/Plantel/Futebol_FichaJogador.asp?idEpoca=355&idCompeticao=34&idJogador=27571 Sporting Clube de Portugal profile] pt icon