Dejan Petković

Four days later away at Real Sociedad, new head coach Víctor Espárrago gave Petković the starting assignment again alongside Šuker, but subbed him off for Monchu early into the second half in the 53rd minute.

The next week versus Racing de Santander, Petković was moved back into attacking midfielder role just behind Šuker and Monchu, however Sevilla again lost 0–1 while Petković got subbed off in the 59th minute.

Petković would see action again on 3 January at home versus Real Valladolid — Madrid was comfortably 4–1 ahead when Valdano threw Petković on for Iván Zamorano in the 61st minute.

Dejan Petković (Дејан Петковић, ; born 10 September 1972) is a Serbian football pundit and retired footballer.

In his native country he is widely known under the nickname Rambo while in Brazil he is known as Pet.

He played six times for the FR Yugoslavia, scoring one goal.

Petković played for seven Brazilian clubs in his career, and was made an honorary consul of Serbia in Brazil.

Born to father Dobrivoje (traffic technician from Niš) and mother Milena (construction technician from Petrovac na Mlavi) who met in the small mining town of Majdanpek where they both arrived in search of work, young Dejan immediately took to football.

What would turn out to be Petković's last appearance of the season for the club came the following week away at lowly CP Mérida — Real let the 0–2 lead slip by conceding two goals and in the 81st minute Valdano sent Petković in for Freddy Rincón in search of a goal, but the score stayed 2–2.

Within a fortnight Petković was loaned out to Sevilla without getting a chance to have a starting eleven appearance during his one month at the Bernabeu.

Petković's playing career started in 1988 at Radnički Niš.

In the same year, he met his future wife Violeta.

He became the youngest player ever to play an official match in the history of old Yugoslav First League, debuting on 25 September 1988 when he was 16 years and 15 days old, against Željezničar Sarajevo thus beating Mitar Mrkela's record by 1 day.

Radnički ended up winning 4–0 in that match.

Petković's age record has since been broken by Slavko Perović and Danijel Aleksić.

Petković still helps his first club, which has since then declined.

The following week Petković got relegated to the bench, only getting a bit part as an 89th-minute sub as Sevilla improbably triumphed away at league-leaders Atletico Madrid, however, the week after that he was back in the starting assignment.

In July 1992, Petković was bought by Red Star Belgrade.

Though not even 20 years of age, he arrived with a reputation as a skilled technical playmaker.

As established Yugoslav internationals such as Dejan Savićević, Darko Pančev, Vladimir Jugović, and Siniša Mihajlović left the club during the same summer, Petković was given a first-team run straight away by new head coach Milan Živadinović, appearing in 30 league matches and scoring 5 goals in his first season in Belgrade.

He ended up staying with Red Star until December 1995 (three and a half seasons), winning two Yugoslav First League titles.

His transfer to Real Madrid was principally agreed during summer 1995, but Red Star decided to hang on to him for the 1995–96 UEFA Cup where the club expected to do well after finally being allowed back on the European scene following years of sporting sanctions due to regional conflicts.

However, Red Star was eliminated by Swiss club Neuchâtel Xamax in the preliminary round.

In December 1995, 23-year-old Petković joined the Spanish giants Real Madrid.

At the time of his arrival, the club was not where it wanted to be in the league, hovering just outside the European spots in 6th and 7th place.

Petković finished out the 1995–1996 La Liga season in Sevilla, appearing in 8 league matches (7 as a starter) and scoring 1 goal.

Arriving to Estadio Sánchez Pizjuán in mid-January 1996, Petković was once again parachuted into a club battling turmoil.

Sevilla was barely above the relegation zone with head coach Juan Carlos Álvarez (already their second head coach of the season) on thin ice.

Juan Carlos gave his new Serbian acquisition his debut at home on 24 January vs Albacete as a starter.

Playing upfront with Davor Šuker as strike partner, Petković had an average outing as Sevilla drew 1–1 with Castillan visitors, which cost head coach Juan Carlos his job.

During summer 1996, Petković returned from the loan spell in Sevilla.

The Real squad that he returned to was radically different from the one he had left six months earlier: from the new head coach Fabio Capello over to attack-minded left back Roberto Carlos from Inter Milan, right back Christian Panucci from AC Milan, attacking midfielder Clarence Seedorf from Sampdoria right down to the all new forward line with Petković's former Sevilla teammate Šuker, and fellow Yugoslav Predrag Mijatović from Valencia.

The competition for spots up front thus got even tougher.

Despite having a reputation for cautious and defensive football, Capello played a three-man attack of Raúl, Mijatović, and Šuker, with Seedorf just behind them.

It became clear that Capello was not counting on Petković, as he did not play a match until coming on as late substitute in the fourth match of the season.

A week later Petković came on as a late substitute at Real Oviedo for his last Madrid appearance.

Petković got loaned out to Racing de Santander in January 1997.

He then briefly returned to Real before being discovered by Vitória in a friendly tournament in which both clubs were involved.

along with Real Mallorca and Flamengo.

Playing under head coach Jorge Valdano, Rambo made his league debut on 17 December versus Celta de Vigo as a 65th-minute sub for the legendary club veteran Míchel as Madrid won 1–0 at home.