The first part of the season in the Serbian Super League is slowly coming to an end, and Vojvodina has only two more league games left to play. The first will follow on Saturday in Subotica, where the red and whites are expecting the 62nd Vojvodina derby against Spartak, which is playing great this season and is in fourth place on the table.

The Vojvodina derby has a special significance for all its participants, and especially for those who were once members of both clubs. One of them is Milan Jovanić, the current coach of the Old Lady goalkeepers, who successfully played for the team from Subotica during his goalkeeper career.

According to him, the red and whites are expecting another uncertain match, but he believes that the team will successfully overcome another difficult away game.

– Spartak has done a phenomenal thing and has been functioning extraordinarily in the last few years, and Mr. Simović, Knezević and Dragan Đorđević run the club in an exceptional way. They also had a phenomenal coach Gaćinović, for whom I am sorry he left, but he has been there for a long time. I think he is a great man and one of the best coaches in the Super League. In my opinion, Spartak has the best half-counter and counter in the league, with extremely fast, good and disciplined players. They are amazing in transition and made troubles to many teams. Partizan barely beat them there, while Spartak missed a penalty in the 90th minute, and they narrowly lost 3-2 at Marakana. Now they have achieved a good result in Inđija, where they won after the turnaround. An extremely difficult and tactically demanding match awaits us, in which one detail will probably decide. We have already won a sufficient number of points, so we should not rush, although the Manager will decide on that with Šarac and Bratić. I expect a similar match as in March this year, when it was 0-0, although we all prefer when there are goals, as recently against Metalac. It is not good for us that we were left without a victory then, but such matches are generally good for football as a whole – says Jovanić.

After 17 rounds, Vojvodina is on the third place on the table, with two points behind the second-placed Partizan and six points more than the fourth-placed Spartak?

– Honestly, I can’t be dissatisfied with the current season. We unfortunately lost a few points, but that came back to us. We beat Partizan in the 93rd minute, and how nice it is when you win that way, it’s so hard when you lose points like, say, in Gornji Milanovac. In the remaining two matches, we will go for the victory and try to finish the fall as second, because you never know. Partizan has a difficult game against Voždovac on the roof and if it fails, and we win in Subotica, here we are again in the second position. On the other hand, we are already running six points to fourth on the table, which has not happened in this part of the season for a long time.

You were born in Novi Sad and passed the Youth Academy of Vojvodina, but you made your debut in senior football in Veternik. What memory binds you to that period?

– I came to Vojvodina in ’92. or ’93, and was brought by the Aleksandar Kozlina. In the beginning, I wasn’t even a goalkeeper, and even today, in indoor football I prefer to play than to be on a goal. I was in Vojvodina until I started playing for the U-18 team, when I played two games, and then spent two games at the bench. I didn’t like that and I asked to go somewhere where I could play, because I think that is the most important thing for a young goalkeeper. As important as training is, matches are still the most important, because they make you bigger and only through them can serious progress be made. In Veternik, the president of the club at the time was Nenad Opačić, with whom I had a phenomenal cooperation, and my first senior appearance was against Novi Sad in the then Second League – North, when we won 1-0. I was 18-19 years old.

After Veternik, you went to Australia, where you were a member of FC Perth Glory, a participant in the highest rank of Australian football?

– I played there in five or six official matches, and I went at the invitation of Ferenc Arok, who was previously the coach of Australia, and in our country he led Novi Sad since ’61. to ’65. Novi Sad then participated in the First Federal League. I terminated the contract with Veternik and basically made a deal with Bežanija, although I did not officially sign anything. Ferenc knows my father and when I accidentally met him on one occasion, he asked me if I was interested in Australia. As a 19-year-old kid, I immediately said yes, even though I didn’t know English, or where I was going, or how it was there. In Australia, it was difficult for me as much as that experience helped me mature in life, because I was completely separated from home and family for a long time. I think it is a phenomenal country to end your career, to go with your family for a year or two and enjoy, because there is no pressure there. It was here that I experienced for the first time that we lost a game in the fight for the playoffs, and our audience applauded us. They would drop trees and stones here, you shouldn’t go out on the street. All in all, it was very nice and very difficult for me there at the same time.

You returned to Serbia from Australia, to Novi Sad, which then participated in the First League of Serbia?

– I came to Novi Sad at the invitation of the then director Miodrag Morača and I defended there for about a year and a half. We had top results and outstanding players. At that time, Ljubiša Dundjerski, Boško Kovrlija, Darko Puškarić, Slobodan Simović played for Novi Sad… Ljube Dundjerski played a stopper, and he gave incredible goals. He helped us a lot, just as Drinčić now works in the Vojvodina team, which means a lot to us with his game and appearance. You can imagine how important Ljube Dundjerski was to us in the second league at that time, with his experience from Serie A. It was really phenomenal for me in Novi Sad.

Good games in the Novi Sad jersey recommended you to Spartak, with whom you won a place in the Europa League’s qualifications and were the best-rated player in the league?

– At that time, Spartak’s coach was Zoran Milinković, and the coach of the goalkeeper was Zoća Stojanović when I incredibly appreciate and respect him. I took over most of the good things from him that I now apply as a goalkeeping coach, especially in psychology, which is incredibly important for goalkeepers. We had a terrible year, and the crown of it all was going abroad.

From Spartak, you went to Wisla and signed a five-year contract, during which you won one title and the Polish Cup with that club. Still, you left the club before your contract expired?

– I had the misfortune that the set of people who brought me left the club only three months after my arrival. In the first six months, I had a certain number of appearances, and after that, Wisla brought the Estonian national team player, a really phenomenal goalkeeper. I became a reserve, and I wanted to go on loan, and there were options for the first Polish and second German leagues. However, Wisla is a big club, it has the most titles in Poland, and they didn’t let me go, explaining that they need a good second goalkeeper. That later proved to be true, because I got a chance in some matches in the Champions League qualifications and I defended very well. However, after two or three years, there were some financial problems, so I returned to Serbia.

You returned to Spartak from the Vistula, but in your second term at that club, you didn’t defend much?

– Since I had a dispute with Wisła, I asked the people from Spartak to help me with paperwork, and they came out to meet me. Spartak then had a good goalkeeper who defended, and I went to training only two or three times a week. However, in some matches, I also defended, such as in the Cup against Partizan, when we won 2: 0. At that time, Spartak’s coach was Kanatlarovski, who was the coach of Macedonia, and he asked me to defend in that game.

You then came to Vojvodina from Spartak, with whom you won the first Serbian Cup in the club’s history?

– I came to Vojvodina in January 2014. Until the end of that season, I defended in the championship and Zakula in the Cup. He was a master of penalties, which later turned out to be the case. Rockov was also there as the third goalkeeper and Vanja Milinković-Savić, who later signed for Manchester. The following season, I struggled with injuries, after which I said a lot because I felt it was the end.

Did you record three appearances for the Serbian national team during your career when the selector was the famous Radomir Antic?

– Until that moment, I had never met such a coach. He is a coach who sees everything, and that is why my current boss Nenad Lalatović reminds me a lot of him. This is what makes coaches different from each other. He once stated that, during a corner for our team, he asks the goalkeeper to stand high and that he recently watched the goalkeeper who, thanks to that, kicked the ball 40 meters from his goal and thus prevented a chance for the opponent. That is what I did to Kleu against Partizan, and I knew that he meant me. At one training session of the national team, the goalkeeper’s coach Rade Zalad called me, and I headed towards him and Radomir Antić. However, he was standing at the very other end of the field and working with the players, interrupted the training, and shouted at me: “What did we say? “So, he was not only focused on what the players in front of him were doing, but he was also watching what I was doing. Later, Rade Zalad told him that he called me and everything was OK, but that was etched in my memory. As a man, he was good, calm, composed… After all, we are talking about a man who worked in Barcelona, ​​Real, Atletico and has a serious result behind him. In general, it was very nice for me on the national team. He remained sorry for that South Africa, even though I was on a wider list. Before my debut for Serbia, I received an invitation to select Bosnia and Herzegovina because my father was born in Republika Srpska, and I have their papers. They even guaranteed me that I would defend in some matches. However, of course, I would rather defend Serbia.

At the end of your playing career, you started working as a coach at Cement from Beocin?

– That idleness, when he interrupts his career, is difficult for every player. On one occasion, while walking on the quay, I accidentally met Igor Mirović, when I know and greatly appreciate him as a politician and a man. We also talked when I told him that I had finished my career. He asked me if I would work in the Provincial Institute, help with motor skills, etc. Although I didn’t know what I was getting into again, I said I would because I just wanted to start working somewhere. I worked there for two or three months, after which a friend asked me to do goalkeeping training with a kid. As I did that training, I said to myself – this is my job. I did two or three training a day at the Index, and then Milan Kosanović asked me if I would like to deal with it. I accepted and wanted to have my goalkeeping school there. In the beginning, there were five of them, and after three months, there were already 30. I did everything myself, and I arrived. I was on the field for eight hours, and I couldn’t do some office work for two hours. I’m just not that type. I like to work, show, talk, and that’s how I found myself in all that. When that became known, the director of Cement, Mr. Nikitović, called me, and that’s how it all started. I had amazing coaches, especially in Poland, which has fantastic goalkeepers. They pay a lot of attention to physical fitness, and I also had a Dutch coach who puts a lot of emphasis on the game with his foot. Of course, it all depends on the head of the professional staff and his game’s vision.

You then came to Vojvodina from Cement during the 2018/19 season?

– I came to Vojvodina at the invitation of the vice president of the club Ljubo Apra and the then general director Darko Jevtić and sports director Sasa Drakulić, with the arrival of Dragomir Okuka, when I knew him privately even before that. After a few months, he left, and Radovan Krivokapić and I wanted to go with him. However, he told us that he was going abroad and that he could not take us. It wasn’t easy then, but I looked at it from the other side: I work in my club, in my city, and I love what I do. When I came to the club, some people wondered if I could and could do it, and I told them: “The moment you are not satisfied, I will go and we will work part as people.” However, they should talk about me. The goalkeepers and the boss are judging, not someone who works in a supermarket and has never been in this business. It was a difficult period, but after the rain, the sun always comes. For Vojvodina, that was with Nenad Lalatović, which was the best possible move for the club.

It was Nenad Lalatović who once stated that you are the best goalkeeper coach he has worked with?

– Do I need more recognition than that? I don’t like to praise myself, but I must say that it is not easy to keep the first, second, third, and fourth goalkeeper at the optimal level. I think that I am doing my job well and that I can do even better, so I will try to be like that. Nenad Lalatović is a “dad” in Serbian football in the coaching job, and when he says something like that, I try to give it back to him twice. Just like I am looking to give back to Vojvodina for accepting me and giving me a chance to work in my club and my city. Is there anything more beautiful than that?

Nenad Lalatović pointed out the great atmosphere among the players on several occasions, and the same is certainly true for the members of the professional staff?

– Bratic, Sarac, and I played together in Spartak, and we have many adventures and stories. The boss will now go to Kopaonik with his family, so will I, Bratic, and maybe Sharac will also come. The boss once said very well: “When on the day of the game, in the morning, I see eight or nine players sitting and hanging out, I know we are winning.” If it were not so, we would be 15th in the table. I want Šarac to do the best possible analysis, for the boss to lead the game as well as possible… We hang out privately and go on summer vacations together. This summer, we planned to go to Budva together, but everything went wrong because of the crown.

When you came to Vojvodina, Emil Rockov was on goal, who went abroad after winning the Cup. How was your work with him?

– I first cooperated with him as a player in Vojvodina in the season in which we won the first Cup in 2014. He is a typical example of how success only 10-15 percent depends on the talent and everything else on work. I am thrilled to know him and his family privately, and he deserved to go abroad even earlier. My heart is full because the guy who went through everything and everything on loan in the third and fourth leagues showed that he is getting better. He took his chance because he worked well. If you don’t do well because you think you won’t defend, when you get the chance, you will drop the ball or something like that because God gives everyone back what they deserve. I still say that to my goalkeepers today. Emil is specific, precise, knowledgeable, educated, and invests in himself. We still talk, and he tells me he is satisfied. In Vojvodina, he never asked the question of finances and whether his salary was 500 or 600 euros. He knew exactly what he wanted: to defend well, go abroad, and earn money. I gave him some guidance on things he may not have done, but everything he achieved he deserved with his honesty and hard work.

After his departure, Nikola Simić replaced him with the goal of Vojvodina. When did Nenad Lalatović say that he would see him in the Serbian national team in a year?

– We encountered various problems with Simke. Some restrained him, but since I came to the club, I have believed in him and seen that he has potential. He has exactly what is required – a good leg, phenomenal athletic build, good reaction, speed, explosiveness, and 195 tall. He reminds me of Brko in his younger days, when he was in Vojvodina for the first time. It is difficult for a goalkeeper when he does not defend for two years, and when the question is constantly asked whether he will leave or not. However, it would not have been fair to Rock either if we had removed him from the goal while he was still there. That’s how the boss and I think, and I’m glad we’re like-minded about it. When Rockov left, it would not have been fair to Simket if we had put Vuklis to defend because the boy had been waiting for a chance for two years. What is important is that Goran Vukliš understood that as well. Unfortunately, Simić was injured due to stupidity. Until then, he defended phenomenally, including in the last round of last season against Partizan, when the boss accepted my proposal to put him on goal. We definitely said that Rockov could go without problems because we have an adequate replacement, which turned out to be true. The goalkeepers of Vojvodina do not have much work during the game. They may have three or four interventions, but they must react properly then, and physical and mental preparation is essential for that.

Just as Simic used his chance after Rockov left, so did Vuklis use his chance after Simic’s injury?

– Even today, I tell him that nothing is ever known in life. Maybe a club will invite him for the winter and offer him some good conditions. Goalkeepers are like wine – the older and more experienced they are, the better. It is not the same to be 25 and 33 years old. The one with 33 is more experienced, but this one with 25 will last longer. Vuklis showed stability and accepted what the boss asked of him, which is going well for now. I always tell goalkeepers that they must be aware of their mistakes and recognize them themselves, and not me to draw their attention. If it’s a bumpy terrain, you’re not going to go full to shoot it, but you’re going to open your leg and kick it inside. There is no “bounced off me.” It must not happen. You must always be ready and concentrated, as Vuklish was against Radnicki.

Young Nemanja Toroman represents the future of Vojvodina, even though he already got a chance to make his debut this season and showed himself quite well?

– There were stories about whether to go on loan, but the boss said it was better to stay because you never know what could happen, which later turned out to be true. Simic got injured, Vuklis defends, and he is now practically the first substitute. He decided to stay, he works hard, and we just waited for the opportunity to give him a chance, which he deserved with his attitude towards training and obligations. We all have some problems, but we don’t have any problems during those two hours when we go out on the field. In that match, Nemanja defended brilliantly in a “one on one” situation, waited for the player, and had a strong hand, and that is what we keep repeating.

In addition to three excellent goalkeepers, Vojvodina also returned the legendary Željko Brkić this summer. When should we not waste words?

– Brka could easily defend against Spartak without any problems, and his career should not be commented on. His return was absolutely one of our best moves. I allow the goalkeepers to talk to each other, and Brka can help a lot, which he does. They must be friends, but the hierarchy must also be known. At the moment, Vuklis is the first, and if he gets injured, he will be defended by the one appointed by the boss. Of course, both the second and the third goalkeepers want to defend because that is normal. I wouldn’t even get a goalkeeper who doesn’t want to defend, but we don’t allow a bad atmosphere. After all, we will have winter preparations soon, so we will see who will be the first goalkeeper in the spring.

Last season, you won the Serbian Cup with Vojvodina, which made you one of the few in the club’s history that can boast of winning two trophies. How realistic is it to embrace the third cup with Vojvodina this season?

– Our ambition is to defend the trophy. As for the championship, we are third for now, and if we are given the opportunity for which position more, we will certainly do our best to use it. However, we go from match to match. Whenever we talked about the next five or six games, we made a mistake. That is why we are not thinking about Proleter at all now, but only about Spartak. Personally, I think it would be phenomenal to keep the third place, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try more than that. Football is a miracle. Zvezda can also fail. My brother Nikola Milutinov, who plays for CSKA, once told me nicely: “In basketball, hockey, and other sports, quality mostly wins. In football, it’s not like that. “I am the first to agree with that. The star beat Marseille in the Champions Cup final, although it once crossed the center for the entire game. For now, let’s keep this third place, and we’ll see you later. In any case, I do not see why we would not be the first one – said Jovanic.