Dragan Mrđa

Dragan Mrđa (; born 23 January 1984) is a Serbian football coach and a former forward. At international level, he has represented Serbia 14 times.

Club career

Early career After spending many years of his youth playing with Red Star Belgrade, during which he was loaned to FK Jedinstvo Ub, he decided to accept a challenge that came from Belgium and moved to Lierse S.K. in August 2005. In the summer of 2006, he was loaned to another Belgian First Division club, S.V. Zulte Waregem before moving to Russia to play with Premier League club FC Khimki.

Vojvodina After one season in Russia, he returned to Serbia to join FK Vojvodina in the Serbian SuperLiga. In spite of arriving to the club off of dry spells in Belgium and Russia, he became Vojvodina's captain after a remarkably short period of time due to a spontaneous explosion of good form. His prolific goal-scoring with Vojvodina earned him calls from the Serbia national team from 2008, having been called up for a friendly against Bulgaria and another friendly match against Austria which took place the same year. By the end of the 2009–10 season, Mrđa had scored 22 goals in 29 league games and was named SuperLiga Player of the Year.

Sion After two seasons spent in Novi Sad, in summer 2010, he signed a 3-year contract with Swiss side FC Sion. In March 2011 in a match against FC Zürich he suffered a serious knee injury which kept him out of football for six months.

Return to Red Star Belgrade After seasons spent in Sion, Mrđa returned to the club at which he debuted professionally, signing a two-year contract with Red Star Belgrade. On 29 September 2013 he scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win against FK Spartak Subotica. On 23 November 2013 he scored another hat-trick in a 4–1 win against FK Sloboda Užice, becoming Red Star's highest goal-scorer of the half-season.

Omiya Ardija On 1 July 2014, Mrđa joined J. League Division 1 club Omiya Ardija. Mrđa scored on his debut on 19 July 2014 helping them to earn a 3–3 draw against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. He played 18 times for Omiya in the 2014 as they suffered relegation to the Division 2.

He finished his career at Slovenian side Olimpija Ljubljana.

International career Mrđa was a part of the Serbian U21 team that made it to the final of the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, where he scored coming off the bench against the Netherlands U21 side. By the end of the championship he had scored a total of two goals, which was on level with the likes of Ryan Babel. Mrđa scored two goals for the Serbia national team in a 3–0 friendly win against Japan on 7 April 2010.

In June 2010, he was called up by Radomir Antić to Serbia's squad at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but didn't make any appearances there.

Career statistics

Club Updated to 23 February 2017.

International

International goals DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition