Simon Vukčević

Partizan

Born in Titograd, Socialist Republic of Montenegro, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Vukčević started playing football at the FK Zabjelo youth academy, signing with FK Partizan at age 13. He was promoted to the first team of the latter ahead of the 2003–04 season. The 18-year-old Vukčević scored a career-best ten goals in the 2004–05 campaign, helping his team win the eighth First League of Serbia and Montenegro in their history and 19th overall. He was eventually awarded the number 1 shirt in recognition of his popularity among supporters but, during 2005–06, faced criticism over his excessive individual play and poor shot selection, as well as overall declining form.

Saturn

In January 2006, Vukčević joined FC Saturn Ramenskoye for a reported fee of €7 million. In late July, however, he was demoted to the reserve squad with coach Vladimír Weiss publicly blasting him in the press for displaying bad attitude in training and having a lack of manners. Subsequently, Vukčević expressed frustration at his manager playing him out of position. He also said that coming to the Russian Premier League club was a mistake, and that he would have preferred a more ambitious project. Vukčević's fate did not change for the better even though Weiss was dismissed early into the 2007 season, being replaced by Gadzhi Gadzhiev,

Sporting

On 25 June 2007, Saturn reportedly agreed a €4 million transfer fee with Sporting CP, but the deal stalled when the…

Youth

Vukčević was part of the FR Yugoslavia under-17 squad at the 2002 UEFA European Championship. At age 18, he was selected by head coach Vladimir Petrović to be part of the Serbia and Montenegro under-21 team at the 2004 European Championships, scoring for the eventual runners-up in a 1–2 group stage loss to Italy and also converting his penalty shootout attempt in the semi-finals against Sweden. He participated in the Summer Olympic Games also that year, and was subsequently honoured with the Golden Badge Award for the Best Young Athlete of the Year in Serbia and Montenegro by DSL Sport. Vukčević also played for the under-21 side in the 2006 European Championship. After a 0–1 defeat against Germany in the group phase opener, manager Dragan Okuka dropped him from the first team.

Senior

Vukčević began earning call-ups to the Serbia and Montenegro senior team from Ilija Petković. His debut came on 11 July 2004 against Slovakia at the age of 18, when he replaced Saša Ilić late into the 2–0 win for the Kirin Cup. On 4 June 2005, Vukčević was given his competitive debut, when he came in for Ognjen Koroman for the last eight minutes of the 0–0 home draw to Belgium for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. His last appearance for Serbia and Montenegro occurred four days later, when he featured the entire 1–1 friendly draw with Italy at Toronto's Rogers Centre. After Montenegro seceded from Serbia and Montenegro in June 2006, Vukčević chose to represent the newly…

Club

International goals

Vukčević's father, Ilija, worked as director of football at FK Zeta.