The next two and a half years Dejan Stanković will spend on the bench of the Crvena zvezda football team. This is the third time that Stanković has returned to the team. His previous return was similar to this one because on December 21, 2019, he became the head of the professional staff of Crvena zvezda, succeeding Vladan Milojević, whom he replaced this time as well.
Big player
His playing contribution is great. With Zvezda, he won the Yugoslav Championship, as well as the Yugoslav Cup three seasons in a row, while playing for Lazio he won the Italian Cup, two Italian Super Cups, the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup season. He achieved the most success in Inter's jersey, winning five Italian championships, four Italian Cups and Italian Supercups, the Champions League, and the Club World Cup in 2010.
He had 103 national team appearances with 15 goals scored, and he also played in the period of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, as well as for Serbia.
Stanković spent 130 games on the red-white bench, but he failed to lead Zvezda to the Champions League, although his predecessor Vladan Milojević managed to do it three times in five years. As head coach, he also led the teams of Sampdoria, Ferencvaros and Spartak Moscow. He won the Hungarian championship with Ferencvaros in the 2023/24 season.
In 2021, Stanković graduated as a manager in sports at the Faculty of Sports of the University "Union - Nikola Tesla" in Belgrade.
Businesses
Dejan Stanković's passion is real estate and investing in construction projects, mostly in Belgrade and in the most lucrative locations. There are companies Stefial, Maison Royal, Ninar and ROD Investment.
BIRN is wrote how it is Nemanja Stajic, who was the secretary in the Secretariat for the legalization of buildings in Belgrade and later became an official of the SNS, legalized several buildings that were later connected to the buildings of Stanković's company — and in a way that coincides with the interests of investors.
Stajić was arrested in February 2025 on suspicion of approving the legalization of a number of illegally built buildings in exchange for money. The investigation against Stajić was launched in 2022, but the arrest happened only after the announcement by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, that a fierce fight against corruption would begin. The state needed this action in try to suppress student protests, but proved quite unsuccessful.
BIRN wrote that Stanković illegally legalized thousands of square meters in Vračar. The Prosecution opened a case on illegal construction, but the proceedings were not initiated. BIRN revealed that it is Stanković's company Stefial legalized the building in the center of Belgrade before it was built, which is a unique phenomenon in wild construction in the capital.
So far, there have been no public verdicts against Stanković personally in those cases.
Cannon strikes from the trainer's building on March 15
Stanković's name appeared in the research of "Vremen" and the reconstruction of the events of March 15, 2025, when it is suspected that sound weapons were used on people during a large protest and a minute of silence. A moment after he broke through Kralja Milana Street terrible roar, a group of young men is on citizens were thrown firecrackers and cannon shots from the "King's Circle Residences" construction site, located between the Yugoslav Drama Theater and Slavija, on the corner of Kralja Milan and Svetozar Marković.
The construction site from which the pyrotechnic devices were thrown is actually the unfinished "King's Circle Residences" complex, whose investor is a company majority-owned by Dejan Stanković "Maison Royal".
The entire complex is completely surrounded by panels at least two meters high, and it was easy to enter the construction site only from Svetozar Marković Street, where the surveillance cameras were also installed. When asked by the editors, who were the people who entered the construction site on March 15, climbed to the upper floors of the unfinished building and threw pyrotechnic devices at the citizens from there, the answer never came.
We hear from Vučić - no suggestions
Stanković is on good terms with the President of Serbia, and once gave him a soccer jersey. He commented about Aleksandr Vučić:
"He's a big star player, but he doesn't ask me anything or suggest anything. He made a nice call after Gent, after the victory. He greeted the guys, congratulated us because we did a great thing, both for Zvezda and for Serbian football and the whole country. That was his big congratulation," said Stanković during his last coaching term at Zvezda.
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