Dejan Petkovic Should Play Damnit!

Who is Dejan Petkovic?

Unanimty among the Brazilian. Unknow among everybody else. In Brazil,
nobody undestand why. But the fact is that Dejan Petkovic, voted the
best midfield in the 2005 Brazilian Championship won’t be playing for
Serbia & Montenegro at the 2006 World Cup.

Mario Jorge Lobo Zagallo, technical coordinator of the Brazilian
Seleção, criticized the attitude of the FA of Serbia Montenegro, telling that
they are blind if they don’t see the talent of “Pet”. In the opinion of
the journalist Eduardo Vieira da Costa, writing for Folha do São Paulo,
this uncertainty about “Pet” in Germany 2006 is a great injustice.

Pet (as he is called in Brazil) is an old style genious. He has a
precise pass, throw long balls, and shoots with perfection. He can shoot a
free kick almoust as well as his idol Zico. He is an authentic #10. And
besides all that, he also play with great determination, strength and he
fights until the end.

Petkovic is also treated with unfairness, since there is no player in
his country with even half of his talent. According to him, the reason
of his absense on the Serbian squad is because of his problems with
thoses who controll the soccer in Serbia & Montenegro.

Although, his problems with the Serbian Team are much older and carries
a little bit of bad luck. In 1992, with only 19 years, Petkovic were
playing for the Red Star and for the Yugoslavia team that qualified
undefeated for the Euro92. But due the country’s civil war, the UN, FIFA and
UEFA decided to banish Yugoslavia from all the international
competitions.

After that he begun to travel around the world. He played in many teams
such as Real Madrid, Sevilla(Spain), Venezia (Italy), Vitória,
Flamengo, Vasco(Brazil) and even in the chinese team Shangai Shenhua. Now, with
33 years old he appears to be playing even better as Fluminense were he
shared with the argentinian Carlitos Teves the MVP in the last
Brazilian league.

But with Yugoslavia, nothing else worked out rigth. In 1995, after
fight with the coach Slobodan Santrac he was sacked from the team and
missed the opportunity to play the World Cup in France.

His last appearance with the Yugoslavian squad was in 1998, against
Brazil. Eversince he seems to be forgotten by all the Yugoslavian/Servian
coaches.

In a land with simple named players such as Pelé, Didi, Zico and Kaká,
this foreign player with an dificult name make history. I have never
seen the Brazilian mobilize themselves for a football player eversince
Romário was not called by Luiz Felipe Scolari at 2002.

(über Portgual blogger/fan Luis Paulo Porte contributed this article)