Rade Bogdanović

Rade Bogdanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Раде Богдановић; born 21 May 1970) is a Serbian football pundit and former professional player who played as a striker.

Early life Born in Sarajevo to a father employed as a driver at Energoinvest and a homemaker mother, Bogdanović was raised in the village of Tilava on the city outskirts. He attended the Primary School in the Vraca neighbourhood and was a fan of Hajduk Split in his youth.

Youth football at Željezničar Bogdanović began playing organized football at the age of twelve, getting invited to try out for hometown side Željezničar's youth system in June 1982 after being noticed at a local primary school tournament by the club scout and former goalkeeper Ruda Bulić. After passing the tryout, Bogdanović was attached to the Željezničar cadet (under-16) squad coached by Duško Bajić; among the youngsters joining the club's youth system at the same time was Goran Gutalj. Serving in Belgrade at the Topčider barracks as part of the sporting company, a unit formed for professional athletes, among the athletes serving at the same time was Vladan Milojević, a Red Star Belgrade prospect who would go on to a notable head coaching career. As a result of being in the army, Bogdanović missed the entire 1990-91 league season.

Bogdanović stayed at Grbavica until April 1992, fleeing Sarajevo as the Bosnian War broke out. The twenty-two-year-old fled to Belgrade along with several other Željezničar first team players such as Simo Krunić, Gordan Vidović, Suvad Katana, Siniša Nikolić, Srećko Ilić, and Jasminko Velić. Once in Serbia, they were accommodated by the FK Partizan technical director Nenad Bjeković and general secretary Žarko Zečević who took care of the players' basic living needs by putting them up at Hotel Mladost near the Banjica forest while allowing them to take part in FK Partizan's training sessions in order to maintain fitness while looking for new clubs. that included joining their winter training in La Manga, Spain during the Eredivisie winter break. Bogdanović was hoping for a compensation agreement with JEF that would allow him to go stay with Ajax's talented squad featuring Edwin van der Sar, Danny Blind, Winston Bogarde, de Boer brothers (Frank and Ronald), Richard Witschge, Marc Overmars, Tijani Babangida, Jari Litmanen, and Patrick Kluivert, but the UEFA arbitration committee got involved and the twenty-six-year-old was forced to honour the contract he had signed in Japan. Unbeknownst to Bogdanović at the time, while training with Ajax in La Manga, he was noticed by the Atlético Madrid assistant coach Rešad Kunovac who was there on a scouting trip assessing the Dutch team, his club's next opponent at the upcoming Champions League quarterfinals. Gil, who died in 2004, was convicted of financial crimes relating to the club.

After not being included in the squad for the opening day of the league season away at Real Madrid, Bogdanović made his debut in the week 2, partnering Kiko up front at home versus Real Valladolid on 6 September 1997 and scoring two first half goals as los Colchoneros routed the visitors 5–0 by the end. The dream start prompted Atlético's impulsive president Jesús Gil to buy him a brand new BMW 316i as a reward. followed by four league contests completely out of the matchday lineup.

Bogdanović would reappear in late October 1997 for a 0-2 home loss versus Espanyol with another full 90 minute performance next to Kiko as Vieri was given a rest by head coach Antić following the Italian's UEFA Cup hat-trick versus PAOK four days earlier. With Atlético taking a 5-2 advantage into the return leg in Thessaloniki, Vieri was again rested by Antić while Bogdanović started and got a goal in the high-scoring contest that ended 4-4, his very first European continental club match.

Back on La Liga front, Vieri got injured minutes into the next league match, at home versus relegation-battlers Compostela, with Bogdanović coming on and scoring before making way for Vizcaíno at halftime. Due to Vieri's injury, Bogdanović would continue as a starter for the following five league matches, a period during which the Yugoslav scored twice. Vieri returned from injury in mid December 1997 as the fourth-placed los Colchoneros were taking on Mallorca and immediately got his starting centre forward assignment back, but could manage only 45 minutes as Antić sent on Bogdanović at halftime with the visitors leading 1-2—within minutes of entering, the Yugoslav tied the score 2-2, but Mallorca still managed to win by the end 2-3. Three days later, with Vieri still not fully recovered, Bogdanović began the league match versus league-leaders FC Barcelona at Camp Nou in front of 80,000 spectators before being subbed off fifteen minutes into the second half with the score tied at 1-1; Barça won 3-1 by the end, dropping Atlético to sixth in the table.

By early January 1998, Vieri was fully match fit again and Bogdanović was back to getting the Italian's leftover minutes. In the wake of picking up an injury that forced him to leave the mid January 1998 league match away at Valladolid before halftime, and a diagnosis by the Atlético medical staff that he would be out of action for at least six months, the Yugoslav accepted a loan out to Dutch NAC Breda for the remainder of the season in order to free up a spot on the Atlético's roster for another attacking player, Avi Nimni, to be registered.

Werder Bremen After playing out the 1997–98 season on loan in Eredivisie, Bogdanović came back to Atlético in summer 1998. As a consequence of finishing the preceding La Liga season in disappointing 7th spot, the Madrid club management undertook a major squad rebuilding effort during the offseason with coach Radomir Antić fired and Arrigo Sacchi brought in. The coaching change was accompanied with a host of changes in player personnel such as superstar Vieri being sold to Lazio and Italian defenders Michele Serena and Stefano Torrisi being brought in from Fiorentina and Bologna, respectively in addition to defensive Yugoslav midfielders Vladimir Jugović and Zoran Njeguš from Lazio and Red Star Belgrade, respectively. With a focus on defensive tactics, Bogdanović was adjudged as surplus to requirements by Sacchi and sold to Werder Bremen for a fee around €1,350,000.

In December 2000, he was banned from playing for six months after having been ruled to have spit Hansa Rostock's goalkeeper Martin Pieckenhagen in the face during Werder's 5–2 defeat.

He stayed at the German club for four years, winning the 1998–99 DFB-Pokal and the 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup. In the cup final against Bayern Munich, Bogdanović came on as a substitute and then scored one of the penalties in the shootout as Bremen emerged victorious.

Later years and retirement In the 2002–03 season, he played for Arminia Bielefeld, and then went to Al Wahda from the United Arab Emirates. After that, he decided to retire from professional football.

International career Bogdanović played three times and scored two goals for the FR Yugoslavia national team. He was asked to play for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, but he chose to play for FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).

Post-playing Bogdanović tried his hand at and football administration with a few low-profile stints, most notably at Rad and BASK.

Since early 2011, he owns and runs a sports recreation facility, named Posco Arena after his Korean team, in the Belgrade neighbourhood of Careva Ćuprija.

Corruption claims Since retiring from playing football, Bogdanović made a number of public allegations about various past instances of corruption he claims to have witnessed during his career as a professional footballer.

1998 Atlético Madrid match-fixing In a April 2011 interview for the Belgrade-based daily newspaper Sport, Bogdanović caused retroactive controversy by alleging that Atlético Madrid's last match of the 1997–98 La Liga season on 15 May 1998 away at Racing Santander was fixed by Atlético president Jesús Gil "because Atlético needed three points to ensure a UEFA Cup spot for the following season". Bogdanović stated: "Gil walked into the dressing room before the match and said that each player has to set aside DM25,000 out of the DM150,000 bonus in order for the win to be bought".

FR Yugoslavia national team 1998 FIFA World Cup pay-to-play scheme Without naming specific individuals, in various print interviews throughout mid-to-late 2010s (some 20 years after the alleged event), retired footballer Bogdanović has made claims about having been offered a spot on the Yugoslavia 1998 FIFA World Cup roster in exchange for paying DM50,000 as part of an alleged pay to play scheme: "After my [summer 1997] Atlético transfer, which I had completed without an agent, I got a call from a well-known Yugoslav coach who had gotten my number through [Atlético head coach] Radomir Antić. This person was most curious as to why I don't handle my business through an agent, basically telling me 'congrats on going from Japan to Atlético and your good run of form, son, but this is not how these things are done: why don't you look into getting yourself an agent and then you can be with us [at the national team]'. Then, ten months later, in April 1998, I got approached by a Yugoslav sports journalist who explained to me that his son is a schoolmate of [Yugoslav FA general-secretary] Bato Bulatović's son. We met up at a restaurant in Skadarlija where this journalist told me he can absolutely guarantee a spot on the upcoming Yugoslavia World Cup roster for me if I agree to pay DM50,000 before proceeding to name-drop all the players he had already gotten into the national team as well as the players who would supposedly be on the upcoming World Cup roster through him. I refused the offer, but, sure enough, then I saw that the individuals he mentioned did later end up playing for the national team [at the World Cup]. One of the [Yugoslav] players taken to that World Cup hadn't even played for the national team before then."

TV punditry From the mid 2010s, Bogdanović began appearing as in-studio pundit/analyst on Serbian television during football coverage. He quickly marked himself out for outspoken approach and off-the-cuff manner.

In November 2019, Bogdanović faced criticism over a racist remark made during RTS' Champions League live coverage. Commenting on poor defending by Borussia Dortmund in a Champions League match against FC Barcelona, he remarked that the German team had never recovered from their manager Lucien Favre's past decision to "play with four blacks in the defensive back line towards the end of the previous Bundesliga season". During the coverage of the same game, Bogdanović further commented on Barcelona's €150 million signing Ousmane Dembélé's time at the Catalan club by claiming that "the Barcelona people hired a nutritionist for the kid to explain to him that he shouldn't be eating fast food before hiring a psychiatrist for him to make him aware that watching porn and organizing online gaming tournaments until early morning isn't a proper lifestyle for a professional footballer" before adding that "the renovation of the Clinical Centre of Serbia costs as much as this guy".

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage on RTS, Bogdanović aroused more controversy with another contentious racial remark, stating after the Belgium vs. Iran group stage match while commenting on Belgium's centre back Nathan Ngoy's 66th minute straight red card that "black players don't posses the focus required for more than 60-to-80 minutes of [disciplined] football". The following day, in response to the negative reaction his remark had caused, he issued a press release apologizing for what he said.

As part of his halftime analysis of the France vs. England 2026 FIFA World Cup third-place match, Bogdanović launched into an on-air broadside against the RTS match commentator Nemanja Matić, referring to the commentator insultingly as a "football ignoramus who just raped us for 45 minutes with his ignorance" as part of Bogdanović's overall rebuke of Matić for "[having the audacity] to comment on [football] tactics despite having never played the sport".

Personal life Bogdanović and his wife Aleksandra have three daughters: Kristina (born 1 June 1994 in South Korea), Marija (born 17 October 2000 in Germany), and Sofija (born 26 July 2007 in Spain). Bogdanović and his family reside in Belgrade though they also spend time in Mallorca where he owns an apartment.

Bogdanović's nephews Vladimir Jovančić and Darko Jovančić are also football players.

Career statistics

Club

International

Scores and results list FR Yugoslavia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bogdanović goal.

Honours Player Pohang Atoms K League 1: 1992 Korean FA Cup: 1996 Korean League Cup: 1993

Werder Bremen DFB-Pokal: 1998–99 UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1998 (Joint Winner)

Individual Awards K League Top Assists Award: 1996 K League Best XI: 1994, 1996

Performance Korean League Cup top scorer: 1994