Player Profile

Jovanovic made his breakthrough as an 18-year-old in the colours of Vojvodina in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city after the capital, Belgrade. After spending a couple of years in Ukraine and Russia, Jovanovic finally found his home at Belgian club Standard Liège In 2006 and quickly became a crowd favourite. His debut season in Belgium was very successful, scoring 24 league and cup goals in 39 matches and he was almost as prolific a goalscorer in the next two seasons, adding another 32 goals from 76 matches. During his third season he came on as a substitute against Liverpool at Anfield late in normal time but Standard were defeated 1-0 after extra-time in the Champions League third qualifying round at Anfield. Jovanovic was Serbia’s top scorer in the 2010 World Cup qualifying matches and that led to his inclusion in the 23-man squad that would travel to South Africa for the finals. He quickly made his mark with the goal that defeated Germany in Port Elizabeth. However, Serbia lost to both Ghana and Australia and failed to reach the knock-out stage of the tournament. Jovanovic was voted Belgian Footballer of the Year at the end of the 2007/08 season and received the Golden Shoe for his league performances in 2009. He won the Belgian league title twice with Standard.

Jovanovic had made an agreement to join Liverpool on a free transfer before Rafael Benítez left the club and even though he left before his arrival he joined the Reds in the summer of 2010. The Serbian had a difficult first season at Anfield and didn't seem to receive much support from his replacement, Roy Hodgson, or from the supporters. Jovanovic started only thirteen competitive matches and in eight of those he was substituted. He played in the opening five Premier League matches but after that was more to be found on the substitutes' bench than on the pitch, if he figured in the matchday squad at all. He seemed rather one-dimensional and hardly “charged up the field" when given a chance, looking more like a Fiat Multipla rather than a race car. Jovanovic made the pitch only a couple of times under Kenny Dalglish and netted just twice for Liverpool, the opener in the humiliating League Cup defeat to Northampton Town and the goal in Bucharest that earned a precious Europa League point against Steaua. Jovanovic had been a star in the Belgian League and was considered by Anderlecht as a marquee signing when they obtained his services in August 2011. It was immediately clear that the Serbian was happy to be back in Belgium after his short and unhappy spell in England. Jovanovic scored nine times from 35 League matches as Anderlecht became domestic champions for the thirty-first time in their history in 2012. It was a success the Brussels club repeated twelve months later with Jovanovic appearing in nearly fifty first-team matches during the season and scoring twelve goals. The Serbian's Anderlecht contract expired at the end of June 2013 and at the age of thirty-two Jovanovic decided to return to the country of his birth, retiring from football.