Mirko Bunjevčević

Born in Karlovac (SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia), he started playing football since young age, along his elder brother Goran Bunjevčević who later became Serbian international. Their talent was soon spotted by the most prominent Croatian clubs HNK Hajduk Split and NK Dinamo Zagreb who brought them to their youth teams. Later, they moved to Serbian capital Belgrade, and, after playing for some period with RFK Grafičar Beograd, Goran, 5 years older, will begin his top flight career by joining FK Rad, playing back then in the First League of FR Yugoslavia, while Mirko continued playing in youth levels with FK Radnički Beograd. After gaining some senior experience by playing one season with lower-league side IM Rakovica, his career will burst in 1998 when he joined FK Rad, a club that his brother successfully represented for four seasons and that led him to sign with local powerhouse Red Star Belgrade a year before Mirko arrived. However this period was much harder generally for football in Serbia, as the country experienced the Kosovo war, NATO bombing and major political turmoil during this time. Thus Mirko, after spending three seasons with Rad, moved for the first time abroad, by joining Slovenian side FC Koper in summer 2001. He will play two and a half seasons in the Slovenian First League, first two with Koper, and a half season with NK Mura. He played with Koper in the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup where they were defeated by Swedish side Helsingborgs IF (0–1; 0–0) in the first…