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Predrag Pažin

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Predrag Pažin
Personal information
Full name Predrag Pažin
Date of birth (1973-03-14) 14 March 1973 (age 51)
Place of birth Nevesinje, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in)[1]
Position(s) Centre back
Youth career
1987–1991 Velež Nevesinje
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1991–1993 Sutjeska Nikšić 36 (2)
1993–1995 Rudar Pljevlja 40 (4)
1995–1999 Partizan 63 (7)
1999–2000 Levski Sofia 34 (2)
2001 Kocaelispor 31 (6)
2002 Spartak Pleven 9 (0)
2002 Beijing Guoan 26 (4)
2003–2005 Shakhtar Donetsk 22 (1)
2005–2007 Shandong Luneng 62 (5)
2008–2010 Lokomotiv Mezdra 46 (4)
Total 369 (35)
International career
2000–2004 Bulgaria 31 (0)
Managerial career
2011 Botev Kozloduy
2015 Lokomotiv 2012 Mezdra
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Predrag Pažin (Bulgarian and Serbian Cyrillic: Предраг Пажин; born 14 March 1973) is a former footballer who played as a defender. Born in Yugoslavia, he represented Bulgaria internationally.

Club career

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He signed his first professional contract with Sutjeska from Nikšić, where he played from 1991 to 1993. Then, until 1995, he played for Rudar from Pljevlja. When in January he moved to Partizan. While he was playing for Partizan, he had an incident with Mateja Kežman during the match that Partizan played against Lazio. After one unsuccessful attack, Pažin blamed Kežman, to which he responded with insults, which caused Pažin to hit him. With Partizan, he was three times the champion of Yugoslavia and once the cup winner. When NATO bombed FR Yugoslavia in 1999, the championship was interrupted, Pažin was out of contract and, in May of the same year, he went to Werder Bremen for a ten-day trial.

He did not sign a contract with Werder, but he received an invitation from Ljupko Petrović, the coach of Levski Sofia at the time. With Levski, he won the title and the Bulgarian Cup, and was declared the best foreign player. He spent two seasons in Bulgaria during which he was offered citizenship and a chance to play for the country's national team - both of which he took. However, he was suddenly sold to Turkish side Kocaelispor, to which he moved in 2001. He won the cup in Turkey, but did not stay there long, so the following year he returned to Bulgaria, where he played for Spartak Pleven.

In the same year, he went to China, where he played for Beijing Guoan, coached by Ljupko Petrović. After China, in 2003 he moved to the Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk, for which he would play until 2005. He won the Ukrainian Cup with Shakhtar in 2004. He returned to China again in 2005, where he played for Shandong Luneng until 2007. The following year, he won the championship and the Cup of China. In the AFC Champions League match, which Shandong played against Al-Ittihad, Pažin was accused of spitting at the referee for which he was punished. The last club he played for was Lokomotiv Mezdra, from 2008 to 2010, where he ended his playing career.

International career

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Pažin made his debut for Bulgaria in an August 2000 friendly match against Belgium in Sofia and has earned a total of 31 caps, scoring no goals.[2] He was part of the Bulgarian 2004 European Football Championship team, which was eliminated in the first round, finishing bottom of Group C, having finished top of Qualifying Group 8 in the pre-tournament phase. His final international was against Italy at that tournament in Portugal.[3] Pažin is the most capped non-Bulgarian-born player to appear for the national side.[4]

Honours

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Partizan

Levski Sofia

Kocaelispor

Shakhtar Donetsk

Shandong Luneng[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Профил на Предраг Пажин" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
  2. ^ Mamrud, Roberto (9 December 2020). "Bosnia and Herzegovina – Record International Players". RSSSF. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Player Database". eu-football.info. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  4. ^ "Иван Чворович стана 4-и сърбин в националния отбор" (in Bulgarian). 7sport.net. 4 June 2012. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  5. ^ "Pažin, Predrag". National-football-teams.com. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
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