When City's 1979/80 season commenced with a goalless home draw with
Crystal Palace on August 18th, the side contained four players making
their first team debuts. These were the homegrown Tommy Caton and new
signings Steve MacKenzie, Michael Robinson and Dragoslav Stepanovic. The
Yugoslav left-back was the subject of a £140, 000 signing from German
side Wormatia Worms four days before the start of the season, and came
with considerable experience of European football and the small matter
of 44 international caps. He played in the opening ten (four wins, four
defeats and two draws) games of what proved to be a difficult and
stuttering season, one that saw Malcolm Allison's sweeping changes and
City finish 17th.
Three more League games followed at the end of
November (one win and two more defeats) before a combination of Willie
Donachie, Paul Power and Nicky Reid took possession of the number three
shirt. Stepanovic was a calm, cultured player but one who always seemed
to struggle with the faster pace of the English game and would make just
one more senior appearance in the 1980/81 season. That too proved less
than successful as newly-promoted Sunderland left Maine Road with both
points courtesy of an easy 4-0 win in only the second game. He played
the majority of games for City's Central League side in the remainder of
his time spent with the club and was eventually released by Bond in
July 1981. His brief City career consisted of 18/1 League and Cup games
and he returned to the Bundesliga and Wormatia Worms where he'd
eventually become coach. (Ian Penney - author of The Legends of
Manchester City) |
Senior career.
Years Team Apps Goals
1966–1973 OFK Belgrade 201 (11)
1973–1976 Red Star Belgrade 30 (2)
1976–1978 Eintracht Frankfurt 49 (3)
1978–1979 Wormatia Worms 33 (0)
1979–1981 Manchester City 15 (0)
1981–1982 Wormatia Worms 16 (0)
Total 344 Games (16 goals)
Teams managed:
1982–1985 FV Progres Frankfurt
1985–1987 FSV Frankfurt
1988–1990 Rot-Weiß Frankfurt
1991 Eintracht Trier
1991–1993 Eintracht Frankfurt
1993–1995 Bayer 04 Leverkusen
1995–1996 Athletic Bilbao
1996 Eintracht Frankfurt
1998 AEK Athens
1999 VfB Leipzig
2000 Stuttgarter Kickers
2000 Kickers Offenbach
2001 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen
2003 Shenyang Jinde
2004 El Zamalek
2007–2008 Čukarički
2009 Vojvodina
2010 Laktaši
2014 Radnički Niš