Nenad Bjeković

Born in Lazarevo, a village near Zrenjanin, Bjeković started out at his local club Zadrugar Lazarevo, before switching to Proleter Zrenjanin. He stayed there for four years, making his Yugoslav First League debut in the 1967–68 season.

In the summer of 1969, Bjeković was transferred to Partizan. He spent seven seasons with the club, scoring 82 league goals in 198 appearances for the Crno-beli. In the 1975–76 season, Bjeković was the Yugoslav First League top scorer with 24 goals, helping Partizan win its seventh championship title.

In the summer of 1976, Bjeković moved abroad to France and signed with Nice. He played for the club over the next five seasons, scoring a total of 85 goals in 143 league appearances. In 2013, Bjeković was named the club's player of the century.[1]

Bjeković made 22 appearances for Yugoslavia and netted four goals. He scored on his debut for the national team in a friendly match against Brazil in Belo Horizonte on 19 December 1968. His last cap came on 24 February 1976 in a 2–1 away friendly win over Algeria in Algiers.

Bjeković started his managerial career in 1982 as an assistant to Miloš Milutinović at Partizan. He subsequently replaced Milutinović as manager at the start of the 1984–85 season. At the helm of Partizan, Bjeković won two consecutive league titles in 1986 and 1987.

In 1987, Bjeković was appointed as manager by his former club Nice, but was released after two years. He again managed Partizan for two months in 1990.

After his managerial career, Bjeković served as sporting director for Partizan for almost two decades. He resigned from the position in May 2007.[2]

By summer 2020, while holding a top-level position within the FSS, he gave an interview to Sportski žurnal in which he maximally minimized the achievements of the foreign players giving a prove of maximal loose impartial analysis. All 4 of Partizan foreigners that season achieved their maximal goals, starting with Takuma Asano (total:35/10) which recovered his place in the Japanese national team, going trough Seydouba Soumah (total:39/14) who made his best season ever in Partizan being decisive in a number of games, then Bibras Natkho, Israeli national team captain (total:31/11), one of the best defensive midfielders and playing organisers Partisan ever had lately, Bjekovic considered him "old", and, as last example, Umar Sadiq, a striker that managed an impressive (total:38/17 + 17 assists) Bjekovic minimized it so much that didn't even wanted to express what his real opinion about Sadiq is because otherwise it would even be suit to go into the media.[3] It is a trend that it is usual with this persona from football that seems to think so low of Serbian players that regularly denigrates and votes for less foreigners because thinks that is the only way Serbian players can survive.

His son, also named Nenad, played professional football for Marseille and Nantes, after starting out with Partizan.

• Nenad Bjeković at WorldFootball.net
• Nenad Bjeković at FootballDatabase.eu
• Nenad Bjeković at Reprezentacija.rs (in Serbian)
• Nenad Bjeković at National-Football-Teams.com