Retro Football: Four Glorious Minutes Of Dragan Stojkovic And His Beautiful Back Heels (Video)

Chris Wright

22nd, August 2013

11 Comments

By Chris Wright

Soccer - World Cup Italia 90 - Group D - West Germany v Yugoslavia - Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan

As the Left Back In The Changing Room blog once so rightly ordained, Dragan Stojkovic – like Matt Le Tissier – was one of those players who just wouldn’t be allowed to work these days.

Stojkovic had little use for regimented tactics and routinely struggled to maintain his fitness, but what he did possess was a consummate touch, a playful technique and desire to entertain himself. He played with an arrogant flourish, the kind of individuality that is usually quickly shackled and stymied by overbearing coaching in the modern game.

Sadly from our perspective, Stojkovic never established himself in Western Europe, with his big 1990 move to Marseille petering out early (despite him going on to stay there for four years) due to multiple injuries, with the Yugoslavian midfielder doing all his best work in his homeland for Red Star Belgrade, for his national side and in Japan with Nagoya Grampus Eight.

Boy, did that guy know how, when and where to deploy a backheel…

There’s more if you want it…

Brilliant stuff.

Posted in Featured, International football, Retro, Videos

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11 Comments

  1. One Man Went to Mow says:

    That’s not football that’s witchcraft.

  2. Sjakie Meulemans says:

    Glorious.

  3. Calado says:

    F*king genius.. Has anyone racked more backheel assists than him?

  4. Gattsu says:

    Socrates is the only other back-hell master who i think would come close to Piksi’s Achillian prowness, but good good almighty…I think its fair to say he’s better passng backwards then most are forwards.

    AND safe to say he’s still go it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQPW2jC_URY

  5. Phaniman says:

    Didn’t he play under Wenger at Grampus? and theres talk of him succeeding as manager..

  6. Cheeky Flick says:

    Seems like the assist depended what team he was on, some of the passes were so dirty that the receiver didn’t read it in time. The team in red at the end seemed like they read the passes earlier and made runs specifically for the backheel. The Serbian Steve Nash!

  7. Wilson says:

    Cristiano Ronaldo might be my favourite player, but he ain’t got nothing on Dragan Stojkovic. The amount of backheels that (nearly)results in assists is ridiculous, that precision and vision to see and find a team mate and the technique to execute it, Divine.

  8. Dan says:

    I feel privileged to have watched Pixy LIVE while he was with Red Star in the late 1980s. Man, he was the absolute commander on the field. Incredible ball handling, vision, speed, technique… the guy was the last COMPLETE footballer to have come out of the former Yugoslavia and certainly one of the top 5 offensive midfielders in Europe and later in Asia.

  9. FCRS says:

    Dragan Stojkovic, nicknamed PIKSI, part of the golden generation of Yugoslav (later Serbian & Croatian) football…it’s a shame the country fell apart before they could play together at Euro 92 and USA 94…

  10. John J says:

    I’m not sure there are superlatives that fully do justice to skill like that. What an absolute genius.

  11. Macka says:

    I have to say I have never seen such a rounded player as Stojkovic. Piksi is always a pleasure to watch. His accurate long balls, accurate back passes, amazing free kicks, corner goals, fantastic dribbling, passing not one or two, but numerous players, scoring amazing distance goals. Precision perfect. An absolute football legend.

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