Blagoje Paunović facts for kids
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Blagoje Paunović | |||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 4 June 1947 | |||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Pusto Šilovo, FPR Yugoslavia | |||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 9 December 2014 (aged 67) | |||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Belgrade, Serbia | |||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Defender | |||||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||||
| 1958–1965 | Partizan | |||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† | |||||||||||||
| 1965–1975 | Partizan | 225 | (0) | |||||||||||||
| 1975–1977 | Utrecht | 37 | (0) | |||||||||||||
| 1977 | Kikinda | 7 | (0) | |||||||||||||
| 1978 | Oakland Stompers | 23 | (0) | |||||||||||||
| 1979 | Sinđelić Beograd | |||||||||||||||
| National team | ||||||||||||||||
| 1967–1973 | Yugoslavia | 39 | (0) | |||||||||||||
| Teams managed | ||||||||||||||||
| 1994 | Logroñés | |||||||||||||||
| 1999–2002 | Teleoptik | |||||||||||||||
| 2002–2003 | Budućnost Banatski Dvor | |||||||||||||||
| 2005–2006 | Teleoptik (joint) | |||||||||||||||
| 2009–2010 | Smederevo | |||||||||||||||
| 2010–2011 | BASK | |||||||||||||||
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Honours
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Blagoje Paunović (born June 4, 1947 – died December 9, 2014) was a famous Serbian football player and coach. He was known for being a strong defender and spent most of his career with FK Partizan in Belgrade. He also played for the Yugoslavia national team.
Playing Career
Blagoje Paunović started playing football at a very young age. He joined the youth team of FK Partizan when he was just nine years old. This was even younger than the usual age to join the club! A coach named Virgil Popescu saw his talent and made sure he could join.
Paunović played for FK Partizan for ten seasons. He played in almost 300 official games for the club. During the 1970s, he was part of a very strong defense team. He played alongside other great defenders like Dragan Holcer and Miroslav Pavlović.
When he was 28, in 1975, Paunović moved to the Netherlands. He played for FC Utrecht for two seasons. After that, he came back home to play for OFK Kikinda. He also had a short time playing in the United States for the Oakland Stompers. He finished his playing career back in Serbia with FK Sinđelić Beograd.
Blagoje Paunović also played for his country. He played 39 matches for the Yugoslavia national football team. His first game was in 1967 against Albania. He also played in the UEFA Euro 1968 tournament in Italy.
Coaching Career
After his playing days were over, Blagoje Paunović became a football coach. In the 1994-1995 season, he was one of the coaches for CD Logroñés in Spain. The team was in La Liga, which is Spain's top football league.
Later, he spent a lot of time coaching the youth teams at FK Partizan. In 2009, he became the coach for FK Smederevo, a team in the Serbian first division. He continued to share his knowledge and love for football as a coach.
Family and Legacy
Blagoje Paunović's son, Veljko, also became a professional footballer and coach. Veljko followed in his father's footsteps. He played for many teams, mostly in Spain. He also coached important teams like Chicago Fire and Reading. Veljko also coached the Serbian national youth teams, including the U20 team.
