Rajkovic, Slobodan

Slobodan Rajkovic - a graduate of the OFC football club from Belgrade. In the main team of the club Slobodan made his debut in 15 years.

In November 2005, a talented high-defender acquired English Chelsea for 5 million euros, this transfer at that time was a record in the world in terms of the amount paid for a player under the age of eighteen. According to the signed contract, Raikovich should have stayed in OFK for another season, but already on loan.

In 2007, Slobodan was again rented, this time to the Dutch PSV from Eindhoven. Rajkovic's debut took place on August 19, 2007 in the Netherlands Championship match against Heracles , which ended with the victory of PSV with the score 2: 0 ^[1] . In that game, Slobodan came on as a substitute for Aruna Kone in the 87th minute. In the championship Rajkovic rarely came out in the main part of PSV, but became the champion of the Netherlands.

After the end of the lease, Raykovich went on loan to the Twente Club ^[2] . For Twente, Slobodan made his debut in the championship on February 17, 2009 in a match against Vitesse , which ended with a home victory for Twente with a score of 2: 1 ^[3] . In the debut season for the club Raikovich played 13 matches in the championship and scored 1 goal ^[4] . In mid-June, Twente extended the Raikovic’s lease until 2010 ^[5] .

Returning to Chelsea, Raikovich could not get permission to work in England and play for the London club ^[6] . On August 24, 2011, the official site of Chelsea announced the transition of Raikovich to Hamburg . The contract was for four years. Turning to Hamburg , Rajkovic became the fifth player to move to Dinosaurs from Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2011. October 30, 2011, in the game of the 11th round of the championship of Germany against Kaiserslautern in an attempt to catch the ball from the sideline and push the player of the opposing team struck him in the face with his elbow, after which he was punished with a red card. After serving the disqualification Raikovich returned to the field, but after a series of unsuccessful matches was sent to the reserve. It is worth noting that his game during the season was not just obstructed by fans and specialists. In August, it was reported that Ajax and Lazio are interested in acquiring a Serbian defender ^[7] . Just before the summer transfer window was closed, Metallurg Donetsk turned to Hamburg with a proposal to rent Rajkovic. But the player refused the option with Metallurg, citing the fact that he was tired of renting ^[8] . He played his first match in the 2012/13 season only in January, coming out in the starting lineup against Borussia , but already in the second match with Werder , he was injured and dropped out before the end of the season ^[9] . In June 2014, Hamburg officially announced that the contract with Rajkovic will not be renewed ^[10] .

In July of the same year, it was reported that the Serbian defender could go to the Greek PAOK , but the transfer did not take place ^[11] . In the fall, the former Rubin head coach Rinat Bilyaletdinov said that he was interested in inviting Raikovich to the Kazan club, but the team management said that this player was not needed ^[12] . On September 29, 2015, he signed a contract with Darmstadt 98 ^[13] .

In the summer of 2016, became a player " Palermo ". The term of the contract and the amount of transfer is not reported ^[14] . After the end of the 2018/19 season, “Palermo” was excluded from Series B due to financial irregularities and transferred to the amateur Series D ^[15] . All team players, including Rajkovic, received the status of free agents.

Slobodan played for Serbian national teams of several ages, Raikovich made his debut in the match against the Cote d'Ivoire in the youth team of Serbia .

In 2008, Rajkovic, as part of the Serbian Olympic team, went to the Olympic Games in Beijing. In the last group match against the national team of Argentina, the Serbs had to defeat the Argentines. But they could not oppose anything to the future winner of the Olympic Games. Serbia lost 2-0. Rajkovic was so disappointed that after the final whistle about the end of the match he spat at the chief referee of the match, Abdukar al-Hilali from Oman. For this spit, Raikovic was disqualified by FIFA for 12 months on September 3, 2008, he was forbidden to play for his Twente club and the national team of Serbia ^[16] .

In July 2012, a scuffle involving Raykovich and Son Heung Minh took place at the Hanseatic club base in Norderstedt. It all started with the fact that the Korean missed several great opportunities for a goal, after which Raikovich expressed his displeasure with the realization of the moments to the forward. After another miss of a Korean, a quarrel broke out between Son and Raikovich. The angry Serb struck the Korean with a powerful blow with his fist, but Son dodged Raikovich’s hand and the fist was hit by Tolgay Arslan, who was standing behind the Korean, who fell to the ground in shock. The dream struck Raikovich’s overshot strike, first with his fist and then with his foot. Teammates ripened to the scene of the conflict and spread the fighters around. Thorsten Fink chased off the guilty from workout. After the debriefing, the trainer decided to transfer Raikovich into a youth squad, and Sona fined him ^[17] . A few days later, the head coach made a statement: “Raikovich will not return to the team again and will not go to the training camp in South Korea. The Serb is set for transfer. ” Raikovich's response was no less harsh: “Our coach is a liar and a hypocrite! Unfortunately, other players share my point of view, but unlike them, I don’t intend to remain here, ”the Serb confessed,“ Fink just wants to get rid of me, but here a great excuse has turned up. He could tell me personally that he was not counting on me in the upcoming season, but instead gave a scandal in the press. You know, in a private conversation, I asked Finck: “Maybe you just don’t like me?” And he answered that it was so ” ^[18] .

Rajkovic is considered a tough defender. Sometimes performing rather dirty tricks that are punishable by disciplinary fines. It has the first Paz and a good game "on the second floor."

He met with the Serbian pop singer Svetlana Razhnatovich , the widow of the commander Zeljko Razhnatovich “Arkan” ^[19] .

PSV

• Champion of the Eredivise : 2007/08

Twente

• Champion of Eredivize : 2009/10

• Biography and statistics on the website of the Serbian national football team (Serb.)
• The most expensive 16 year old players in football history