Dejan Stankovic won three titles with Internazionale during the club season. Captaining a dark horse Serbian side into their first solo World Cup experience, Stankovic is looking to add a fourth trophy to his 2009-10 haul. Sounder at Heart’s Jeremiah Oshan looks at the man they call Deki.
2010 World Cup Player Profile: Dejan Stankovic, Serbia’s Midfield Backbone
If you’re the jealous type, you’ll notice Stankovic bears a striking resemblance to everyone’s favorite Croatian ER doctor, Goran Visnjic. This creates the haunting image of successful actor Visnjic being noticed in bars and having well-meaning soccer fans buying him drinks. Worse it creates the likelihood that women are stopping Stankovic and having him pose for pictures without having any idea he’s a world-class athlete. Look, congratulations on being a superstar football player, but you don’t also get to be mistaken for a hunky actor.
Captains must often walk a thin line when dealing with teammates. Publicly criticize too much, and you risk turning off players you need to help you compete. Act too meek and no one respects you. The situation becomes even more volatile when the teammate you’re dealing with has just ripped off his jersey, thrown it on the field and walked off the pitch instead of celebrating a huge win over Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal, all of it after directing nasty gestures toward HOME fans.
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