Boban Babunski

Boban Babunski (; born 5 May 1968) is a Macedonian retired footballer who played as a central defender, and a coach.

Club career Babunski was born in Skopje, SR Macedonia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On the club level he started playing with hometown's FK Vardar, then spent two seasons in Bulgaria with CSKA Sofia to become of the first Macedonians to compete in the A Football Group. After two solid years in the Spanish second division with Lleida he played the same time in Japan, at Gamba Osaka.

On 31 July 1998 Babunski was transferred to the Greek side, AEK Athens for a fee of 330 million drachmas. He failed to establish himself in the squad and on 28 July 1999 he was transferred to Logroñés.

Babunski retired professionally in 2001 at the age of 33, after stints with, Sint-Truiden and Chemnitzer FC – he left Germany in December 2000, signing with native FK Rabotnichki – the second and the last teams two also in the respective countries' second level.

International career Babunski was capped two times for Yugoslavia in 1991. Subsequently, during seven years, he played 23 matches and scored once for the newly formed Macedonia.

Managerial career Babunski began his coaching career as assistant in the Macedonian national side, under Slobodan Santrač. When the latter resigned on 23 August 2005 he was appointed interim manager but, on 17 February of the following year, Srečko Katanec took over the job on a permanent basis.

On 23 July 2009, Babunski was signed as head coach of Macedonian First Football League champions Rabotnichki, also from Skopje, winning the domestic cup in his sole season. Four years later he returned to the national team.

Personal life Babunski's sons, David and Dorian, are also footballers. The former played youth football with FC Barcelona, whilst the latter did the same at Real Madrid. Babunski's great-grandfather was Jovan Babunski, a Serbian Chetnik vojvoda.

Career statistics

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International