Milenko Ačimovič

Slovenian footballer

Milenko "Mile" Ačimovič (; ; born 15 February 1977) is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Besides Slovenia, he has played in FR Yugoslavia, England, France, Saudi Arabia, and Austria.

Born to Serbian parents in Ljubljana, Ačimovič started his career in the youth ranks of Železničar Ljubljana. He made four first division appearances for Železničar when he was 18 years old. From 1996 until 1998 he scored seven league goals in 36 matches for Olimpija. He then joined Red Star Belgrade, where he played for four and a half years. After successful appearances for the Slovenian national team in Euro 2000 and World Cup 2002, several bigger European clubs expressed interest in him. In the summer of 2002, he joined Tottenham Hotspur. In his first season in London, he made a few appearances, but never established himself as a first team player. In his second season, he became a fringe player. In January 2004 he joined the French club Lille on loan until the end of the season. When he arrived, the club was in 14th place in the Ligue 1, but Ačimovič contributed to an eventual second place finish, enough to qualify for the Champions League. Also, in his first year at Lille, he was part of the team's UEFA Cup campaign, when Lille reached the last sixteen before being eliminated. The following year, he played in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, when Lille reached the group stages. Ačimovič scored Lille's only goal of the campaign against Manchester United in Lille's 1 0 victory in Paris. After two and one half seasons in Lille, he fell out of favour and joined Al Ittihad for the 2006–07 season. After failing to adapt to life in Saudi Arabia, he agreed on a mutual termination of the contract, subsequently moving back to Europe to join Austria Wien. On 15 September 2010, his ended his football career following a persistent right knee injury. Ačimovič returned to Slovenia and was appointed the Director of football at Olimpija Ljubljana, in January 2011, where he stayed until September 2012 when he resigned his position, due to poor results of the team in the Slovenian PrvaLiga.

He debuted for the Slovenia national team on 22 April 1998 in Murska Sobota against the Czech Republic. During the first leg of the UEFA Euro 2000 qualifiers against Ukraine, he scored a winning goal from near the halfway line, helping his team to qualify for their first ever major tournament. At the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Ačimovič scored in Slovenia's 3–1 defeat to Paraguay in Seogwipo. His final appearance for the national side came on 28 March 2007 in Celje, during a 1–0 home defeat to the Netherlands in a Euro 2008 qualification match. He announced his retirement from international football that August. He earned a total of 74 caps for Slovenia, scoring 13 goals.