Ivica Dragutinović

Early years and Belgium

Born in Prijepolje, Dragutinović started playing football with hometown team FK Polimlje. He joined Second League of FR Yugoslavia club FK Bor in the summer of 1992. After one season, Dragutinović moved to fellow Second League club FK Borac Čačak, helping them win the league and promotion to the First League of FR Yugoslavia. He made 56 appearances and scored three goals in the top flight (1994–1996), before heading to Belgium in 1996 and spending the following nine years there with K.A.A. Gent and Standard Liège, appearing in 219 First Division A games in the process. Dragutinović was an overwhelming success after his arrival in Liège, having played over 200 official matches for the club. He still started 2005–06 with Standard but, on the last day of the August transfer window, signed with Sevilla FC on a 3+1 contract as an immediate replacement for Real Madrid-bound Sergio Ramos.

Sevilla

Dragutinović saw regular playing time during his first three seasons, appearing in the middle or the left flank of the back four and scoring once in every campaign as the team won, amongst other trophies, back-to-back UEFA Cups (he took part in a combined 18 matches in those conquests, including the 2007 final against RCD Espanyol). He already held a Belgian passport, thus not being included in the three non-EU player quota of La Liga. On 2 August 2007, Spanish sports paper Marca claimed that Dragutinović had agreed to join Newcastle United of the…

Dragutinović made his debut for the Yugoslavia national team on 13 December 2000, in a friendly against Greece that ended 1–1. During the country's successful 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign he, alongside Goran Gavrančić, Nemanja Vidić and Mladen Krstajić, formed the "Famous Four" defence that only allowed one goal (from Spain's Raúl); during the final stages he only appeared in the group stage 0–1 loss to the Netherlands, as the nation conceded ten and lost all matches in Germany. On 12 September 2007, in the dying minutes of a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier in Portugal, Dragutinović was involved in an altercation with opposing manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, whom eventually punched the defender. They were handed four and two-match bans, respectively, as Serbia finished third in their group and failed to qualify. Dragutinović was again called up for the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign, playing six out of ten matches and helping the newly reformed Serbia to their first FIFA World Cup. After an achilles tendon injury sustained in training for Sevilla, however, he was ruled out of the finals in South Africa.

International

Source:

Sevilla

Copa del Rey: 2006–07, 2009–10 Supercopa de España: 2007 UEFA Cup: 2005–06, 2006–07 UEFA Super Cup: 2006; Runner-up 2007