| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Mitar Mrkela | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1965-07-10)10 July 1965 (age 60) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Belgrade,SFR Yugoslavia | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Winger | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1981–1983 | OFK Beograd | 45 | (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 1983–1990 | Red Star Belgrade | 154 | (30) | ||||||||||||||
| 1990–1992 | Twente | 61 | (10) | ||||||||||||||
| 1992–1993 | Beşiktaş | 23 | (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 1993–1994 | Cambuur | 18 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 301 | (50) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1982–1986 | Yugoslavia | 5 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Mitar Mrkela (Serbian Cyrillic: Митар Мркела; born 10 July 1965) is aSerbian retired footballer, who was a member of the Yugoslavian team that won the bronze medal at the1984 Summer Olympics inLos Angeles, California.
He started his senior pro career withOFK Beograd in 1981 at only 16 years and 16 days of age (at that time the youngest ever in the Yugoslav First League), before moving on toRed Star Belgrade in 1983 where he stayed until 1990. After appearing in one league game for Red Star in 1990/91 season, he transferred to Dutch clubFC Twente and stayed there for two seasons.[1] He played several matches forBeşiktaş in the 1992-1993 season and scored 4 goals, before returning to theNetherlands withSC Cambuur.
Mrkela holds distinction as the youngest player ever to play forSFR Yugoslavia national squad. He was only 17 years and 130 days old when he made his national team debut on 17 November 1982 during aEuro 1984qualifier versusBulgaria inSofia.[2] Head coachTodor Veselinović brought him on in the 17th minute in place of injuredZvonko Živković. However, despite a lot of early promise, Mrkela would go on to make only 5 national team appearances, scoring 1 goal.
For a time in early 2000s, Mrkela was the president of City of Belgrade Football Association. He then became the youth coach in the OFK Beograd system.
In July 2005, soon afterDragan Stojković took over as club president fromDragan Džajić, Mrkela became the director of Red Star Belgrade youth academy - a job up to that moment performed byGoran Đorović.
After leaving his post at Red Star in December 2008, he became the sporting director at OFK Beograd.
In 1991, Mrkela married actressLidija Vukićević.[3] They have two sons:Andrej,[4] born in 1992 and who also was a professional footballer, and David, born in 1997. The couple divorced in 2000.
With his second wife Olgica, 21 years his junior, Mrkela has a son, Dušan (born in 2013).[5][6]
For a while, Mrkela was politically active in theSerbian Renewal Movement (SPO).[7]
