Žarko Nikolić

Žarko Nikolić
Personnel
birthday	October 16, 1936
place of birth	Novi Sad ,  KGR Yugoslavia
date of death	August 22, 2011
Place of death	Novi Sad ,  Serbia
position	Left-back
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1954-1966	FK Vojvodina Novi Sad	226 (12)
1966-1968	FC Schalke 04	11 (0)
1968-1969	FK Vojvodina Novi Sad	1 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1959-1961	Yugoslavia	9 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Žarko Nikolić (born October 16, 1936 in Novi Sad , Yugoslavia ; † August 22, 2011 ibid) was a Yugoslav football player who was Yugoslav champions with FK Vojvodina . In addition to the Yugoslav club, he played in the German Bundesliga for FC Schalke 04 and played nine times in the Yugoslav national team.

Club career

FK Vojvodina

Nikolić played in his hometown of Novi Sad as a teenager for FK Vojvodina since 1952 . He made his first-team debut when he was almost 18 years old, beating Red Star Belgrade 3-2 . During this time he still played on the left as a striker or half- forward . At the same time Nikolić played in the youth national team and a little later in the B national team of Yugoslavia. From 1955 he was a regular player at Vojvodina , meanwhile retrained as a defender and was runner-up with the team in 1957 and 1962. In the seasons 1963/64 and 1964/65 he came only to a few missions because he was drafted into the army. After his military service he returned to the team as a midfielder and was one of the pillars when FK Vojvodina won the Yugoslav championship in 1966 . After 226 league games for Novi Sad, in which he scored twelve goals, Nikolić then moved to the German Bundesliga.

FC Schalke 04

FC Schalke 04 signed the 27-year-old Yugoslav for the 1966/67 season as a reinforcement after the team had barely prevented relegation. He made his debut on the third match day of the season against 1. FC Nürnberg , but only made seven more appearances this season, including the legendary 11-0 defeat at Borussia Mönchengladbach . He played so weakly that in Gelsenkirchen "soon believed [...] that it had to be the wrong Nikolić". In the following season , coach Karl-Heinz Marotzke gave him a chance to prove himself in the first two home games. After Nikolić but on matchday at 1. FC Köln later after coming off the bench in 64 minutes already five minutes banned from the area had been, his career was over in the first Schalke team after eleven operations. He went back to Novi Sad after the 1967/68 season, where he had one more top division before he ended his active career. Later he worked as a trainer in the youth field.

National team

In the preparatory phase for the World Cup, Žarko Nikolić was already part of the extended squad of the senior national team , but did not go to Sweden. In 1960 he was supposed to take part in the Olympic Games , but had to cancel due to an injury. On October 21, 1959 he came to his first use in the A-Elf with a 2-2 in and against Israel . His second match was the 5-1 win in Belgrade against Portugal on May 22, 1960, which brought the team to the European Championship finals . In 1960 and 1961 he belonged to the tribe of the national squad and came to another seven missions, including twice in the playoffs of the World Cup qualification against South Korea . In Chile in 1962 he was part of the squad , but was not used; it remained for him in the team at the nine international matches before the world championship.

Web links

• Žarko Nikolić at the Serbian Football Association (Serbian)
• Žarko Nikolić in the database of footballdata.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Spiegel / Gerd Voss: Almost everything about Schalke 04 , KiWi paperback, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-462-04101-9 , p. 25