Velibor Vasović

Serbian footballer (1939–2002)

Velibor Vasović (Serbian Cyrillic: Велибор Васовић; 3 October 1939 – 4 March 2002) was a Serbian footballer and manager, also one of the legendary players of Partizan Belgrade and Ajax and one of greatest defenders of his generation. A sweeper who could play in midfield, Vasović was renowned for his defensive positioning, never say die attitude and tactical awareness.

Born on 3 October 1939, in Požarevac, on the eve of World War II, to parents hailing from Montenegro—tax office clerk Živojin Vasović and homemaker Jelena "Jelka" Laušević—young Velibor was the couple's ninth child. He had four older brothers and three older sisters, while another one of his sisters died before he was born. With the Nazi German invasion and subsequent dismemberment of the Yugoslav kingdom in April 1941, Vasović's father got taken prisoner by the Germans, spending four years in captivity, while his oldest siblings joined the Partisan resistance movement. At the start of the new league season, Vasović got a spot in Red Star's central defense alongside Milan Čop and Vojkan Melić. His first competitive match for Red Star on 1 September 1963 was also the grand opening of the club's still not fully finished grandiose new stadium Marakana as crveno beli came from behind to beat NK Rijeka 2–1. The team easily led the league by five points at the winter break while defending league champion Partizan lagged far behind. Over the winter break, another transfer saga involving Vasović ensued as Partizan club president Radaković was successful in persuading the player to come back for even more money than Red Star gave him. Vasović agreed, but he was under contract with Red Star and the club didn't want to sign off on the move despite being offered some money as a transfer fee. Vasović even resorted to unilaterally training with his old club. With the league season restarting following the winter break, Vasović was in legal limbo, out of the Red Star lineup, though still having his salary paid by the club. After several months of sitting out, Vasović got instructed by the Partizan vice president Čeda Džomba to try to get a meeting with the highest political authority in SR Serbia at the time, federal interior secretary Aleksandar Ranković, in order to finally resolve the situation. The head coaching duties were handed to Marko Valok. Several months later Partizan played a friendly versus A. C. Milan that went down in infamy for Vasović getting into a vicious fist fight with Milan's Peruvian defender Víctor Benítez, all of which prompted a bench clearing brawl. Though unpleasant, the ugly fracas actually served to further solidify the newly unified team spirit of the recently fractured Partizan squad. He also managed Egyptian club Zamalek SC (1982–1983), Ethnikos Piraeus (1983), Red Star Belgrade (1986–1988), and AC Bellinzona (1989) before returning home to Belgrade and working as a lawyer. During his coaching career, he managed to win one Yugoslav Championship, in 1987–88 season, with Red Star.

Vasović was one of the strongest and most persistent critics of the Yugoslav FA (FSJ) leadership, especially its longtime president Miljan Miljanić. His criticism particularly intensified after the breakup of SFR Yugoslavia. In 1997 Vasović founded an organization called Udruženje za razvoj i prosperitet jugoslovenskog fudbala (Organization for the Development and Prosperity of Yugoslav Football) through which he channeled his criticism of the FSJ. Throughout the summer of 2000 he spoke at various town hall meetings throughout Serbia organized by the Yugoslav Left (JUL), a political party headed by the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević's wife Mira Marković. On 10 October 2000, five days after the overthrow of Milošević's regime in Serbia, Vasović and about a dozen bodyguards broke into the FSJ offices at Terazije square in downtown Belgrade. They attempted to use the post overthrow chaos and confusion in order to gain the upper hand in the expected FA leadership change, however they were unsuccessful. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law.

Velibor Vasović was married twice, first with Mirjana Preradović, and then to Branka Zorić. He had two sons, both with his first wife, Vladimir (1963) and Aleksandar (1968). From his younger son he has a granddaughter, Tara (2009), and a grandson, Stefan (2015). He died in 2002 following a heart attack at the age of 62 and was buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens at Belgrade's New Cemetery.