Dragan Ciric. The end of the list. In the 125-year history of FC Barcelona, only one Serbian footballer has ever worn the jersey of the Catalan giant – the attacking midfielder Dragan Ciric, who moved from Partizan to Barcelona in the summer of 1997. Besides Ciric, two Serbian coaches also left their mark at Barcelona, which we will cover later in this article.
DRAGAN CIRIC
The only Serbian footballer to have played for Barcelona’s first team to date is midfielder Dragan Ciric. Between 1997 and 2000, he appeared in exactly 40 matches, scoring one goal in the Copa del Rey during the 1997–98 season. With Barcelona, he won two La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey, and the 1997 UEFA Super Cup.
Ciric joined Barcelona from Partizan in the summer of 1997, signing a four-year contract. In his first season, he made 35 appearances, a very encouraging start for his Catalan journey. However, ahead of the following season, Barcelona brought in several new midfielders, including Cocu and Zenden, and Ciric lost his spot in the starting lineup.
He was then loaned to AEK Athens and eventually transferred to Valladolid. Although he had planned to retire after the 2003–04 season, Partizan convinced him to play one more season in black and white, which he did, winning the Serbia abd Montenegro championship in 2004–05 and reaching the UEFA Cup Round of 16. After that season, he officially retired.
Despite progressing through all youth levels of the FR Yugoslavia national team, Ciric only played four matches for the senior team, all of them friendlies.
SRDJAN PECELJ
Before moving on to coaches, we must mention Srdjan Pecelj, who is listed in FC Barcelona’s museum at Camp Nou alongside Ćirić as one of the two Serbian players who played for the famous Spanish club.
To be fair, Pecelj only played about ten matches for Barcelona B after moving from Red Star Belgrade. The defender, born in Mostar, played for the youth teams of FR Yugoslavia and later made five friendly appearances for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s senior team.
Other Serbian players who featured for Barcelona B include Goran Drulic (1997) and Goran Maric (2008–09).
Bojan Krkic could also be mentioned on a list of players of Serbian descent at Barcelona, but that is another story. Now, let’s remember the two Serbian coaches who managed Barcelona.
LJUBISA BROCIC
Unjustly forgotten, Ljubisa Brocic was the first major Yugoslav and Serbian coach of European renown. Born in 1911 in Guca, a town later famous for its trumpet festival.
As a player, he appeared in over 200 matches for the famous SK Jugoslavija. His playing career was interrupted by World War II, after which he began coaching. His first assignment, essentially a state mission to help a neighbor, was as the head coach of Albania, with whom he achieved a remarkable success for the time, winning the Balkan Games.
“I accepted the task without question. I spent three months preparing the Albanian national team. They were very backward in football terms but had several exceptionally good players, led by striker Borici. They were still playing the 1924 system – with two defenders at the back, and the rest scattered. I reorganized everything and turned Borici, a centre-forward, into a perfect game organizer.”
As one of the founders of Red Star Belgrade, Brocic won two league titles in 1951 and 1952–53 alongside Zarko Mihajlovic. During a tour in Brazil with the Yugoslav national team in 1953, he was barred from returning to his country due to accusations of allowing members of the Chetnik diaspora to take photos with the team in Rio, despite being considered for the national team coach role.
This led him to focus on foreign assignments, coaching Egypt and Lebanon, PSV Eindhoven, and the legendary Juventus in 1957–58, winning the Serie A. He later returned to PSV and then took over Barcelona in 1960–61. Although he didn’t win the league with Barcelona, he became the first coach to win the first four matches in La Liga and the first to eliminate rival Real Madrid from the European Cup during their dominant period.
Brocic went on to coach Tenerife, the national teams of Kuwait, New Zealand, and Bahrain, and clubs Al Nasr and Al Hilal. He never returned to his homeland and passed away in Melbourne on 16 August 1995.
“All our coaches should thank Ljubisa Brocic, who left his mark on football from Yugoslavia and Europe to South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia. He was a man of the world.” – Miljan Miljanic
RADOMIR ANTIC
The only person in the world to have coached Spain’s three biggest clubs – Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atlético Madrid – was Radomir Antic. He is also one of only two people to have coached both Barcelona and Real Madrid, alongside Uruguayan Enrique Fernández.
Antic arrived at Barcelona in a difficult moment to “put out the fire,” which is reflected in his six-month contract. When he arrived, Barcelona was 15th in La Liga, but he managed to lead them to 6th place and UEFA Cup qualification by the end of the season.
He managed 24 matches, achieving 12 wins, eight draws, and four losses. What cost him his job was elimination in the quarterfinals after extra time by Juventus. At the end of the season, the new club president Joan Laporta decided not to extend his contract, bringing in Dutchman Frank Rijkaard.
Radomir Antic
Barcelona – 2003#HistoriaFCB pic.twitter.com/4JPR7QNH55— Sempre Barça (@Sempre__FCB) March 7, 2025
During his short tenure, Antic promoted young goalkeeper Víctor Valdés, future football star Andrés Iniesta, and gave Xavi a more attacking role, laying the foundations for Barcelona’s future successes.
