Stefan Selakovic

Stefan Selakovic
Personnel
birthday	January 9, 1977
place of birth	Varberg ,  Sweden
size	180 cm
position	striker
Juniors
Years	station
	Varberg's GIF
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1993-1995	Varberg's GIF	66 (21)
1996-2001	Halmstads BK	119 (39)
2002-2004	SC Heerenveen	90 (19)
2005–	IFK Gothenburg	177 (37)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals) 2
	Sweden U-21	11 0(2)
2001-2006	Sweden	12 0(4)
1 Only league games are given. Status: end of season 2011 2 As of the end of the 2011 season

Stefan Selakovic (born January 9, 1977 in Varberg ) is a Swedish football player with Serbian roots. The striker , who made his debut for the Swedish national team in 2001 , won the Swedish championship title three times and won the Allsvenskan top scorer title in 2001 .

Career

Start of career and breakthrough in Allsvenskan

Selakovic played for Varberg's GIF in his youth . In 1993, the attacker made his debut in the men's team of the fifth division, with whom he was promoted to fourth division 3 at the end of the season . In the following two years he was part of the team and made a name for himself as a regular top scorer.

In 1996 Selakovic moved to Halmstads BK in the Allsvenskan. Initially he was only a supplementary player, but contributed in the 1997 season with five goals in 15 games to the Swedish championship. Slowly he was able to earn a regular place and from the 1999 season he missed a maximum of one season game. In the 2000 season he achieved a double-digit number of goals in the league for the first time with ten goals this season and thus helped the club to win the Von Rosens Cup again as the Swedish national champion.

As a result, the national coaching duo Lars Lagerbäck and Tommy Söderberg nominated Selakovic for the King's Cup 2001. On February 10th of that year he made his first international appearance in a 4-1 win over the Thai national team and crowned his debut with a goal to 1-0 -Guide and an assist. In the final of the tournament against the Chinese national team , he scored his second international goal in a 3-0 win with the final goal in the 19th minute of the game.

In the following season, Selakovic continued to prove his scoring threat and took 16 goals this season ahead of Andreas Hermansson at the top of the scorers list. Nevertheless, the team with the seventh place in the table missed the title defense and in the Champions League 2001/02 the team failed in the third qualifying round against RSC Anderlecht despite a goal by Selakovic - his third goal in the competition after he had already played against Bohemians Dublin in both games had scored once - in the first leg after a 2-3 home defeat and a 1-1 draw in the second leg.

Change abroad

Thanks to winning the top scorer title and his international appearances in the national team and in the European Cup, Selakovic aroused the interest of foreign clubs. Shortly before Christmas 2001, the press reported that the striker was about to move to the Dutch honor division for SC Heerenveen , where his compatriots Marcus Allbäck and Erik Edman were already under contract. At the beginning of January he signed a four and a half year contract. By the end of the season, he was used in 14 games and scored five goals. After he missed his scoring danger at the beginning of the following season, he lost his initial regular place and was mainly used as a substitute for the rest of the season.

After Selakovic shuttled between the starting eleven and the substitute bench in the following year and a half, he complained that he was not getting enough time. Upon his announcement that he wanted to change clubs, the Swedish clubs Djurgårdens IF and IFK Göteborg expressed interest in a commitment.

Return to Sweden

Selakovic (left) in March 2009 in a duel with Khaled Mouelhi from Lillestrøm SK

At the beginning of January 2005, Selakovic decided to move to IFK Göteborg, where he signed a three-year contract. In connection with the change he was accused of tax fraud, as he was supposed to receive 4.2 million kroner net salary according to the contract , but he ultimately received 6 million kroner. In July 2007, the striker was acquitted of the charges while two club employees were sentenced to prison terms.

In his first season after returning to the Allsvenskan establish and scored nine goals this season. Even if he was not so accurate in the following years, he initially stayed in the regular formation and played in all 26 games of the season in the 2007 championship season. In the following season, however, the attacker found himself mainly on the bench with coaching duo Stefan Rehn and Jonas Olsson and was only in ten of his 26 league games in the starting eleven. Even in the cup final against Kalmar FF after the end of the season, he was initially only on the bench before he came on for Robin Söder in the 107th minute of the game . He was not used in the decisive penalty shoot - out , but was then able to celebrate his first title win in the cup thanks to the 5-4 success.

Before the start of the 2009 season, Selakovic fought for a regular place at the Gothenburg club. At the side of Robin Söder , Tobias Hysén and Pontus Wernbloom , he formed the club's offensive, which led the team to the top flight of the league. With five goals this season and nine assists, he led the club behind AIK to the runner-up. The also possible title defense in the national cup failed when AIK secured the double with goals from Mauro Iván Óbolo and Antônio Flávio with a 2-0 win in the final . Although he was similarly successful as a goalscorer in the following seasons, the club slipped into mid-table.

Web links

• Profile at IFK Göteborg
• Stefan Selakovic in the database of svenskfotboll.se
• Stefan Selakovic in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: "King's Cup: 4-1 för Sverige i första match" (accessed on April 16, 2009)
2. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: "King's Cup: Sverige hade roligt" (accessed on April 16, 2009)
3. ↑ vi.nl: "Selakovic in winterstop naar Heerenveen" ( Memento from August 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on April 16, 2009)
4. ↑ sportal.se: "Selakovic övergång äntligen klar" ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on April 16, 2009) 
5. ↑ vi.nl: "Selakovic kan kiezen uit Zweedse clubs" ( Memento of August 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on April 16, 2009)
6. ↑ sr.se: "Stefan Selakovic till IFK Göteborg"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on April 16, 2009)  
7. ↑ svt.se: "Samlad Selakovic anlände till ratten" (accessed on April 16, 2009)
8. ↑ svt.se: “Selakovic friande dom överklagas”  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on April 16, 2009)  
9. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: "IFK Göteborg cupmästare 2008" (accessed on April 16, 2009)