| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Slobodan Despotovski | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1971-07-14)14 July 1971 (age 54) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Perth, Western Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Striker | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| Bratstvo Jedinstvo | |||||||||||||||||
| Dinamo Pančevo | |||||||||||||||||
| 1989 | Red Star Belgrade | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1989–1991 | Dinamo Pančevo | ||||||||||||||||
| 1994 | Floreat Athena | ||||||||||||||||
| 1994–1995 | Heidelberg United | 18 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 1995–1996 | Morwell Falcons | 6 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 1996 | Melbourne Warriors | 24 | (26) | ||||||||||||||
| 1996–2004 | Perth Glory | 212 | (102) | ||||||||||||||
| 2004–2005 | Bonnyrigg White Eagles | ||||||||||||||||
| 2005 | Inglewood United | ||||||||||||||||
| 2005–2007 | Perth Glory | 29 | (11) | ||||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | Inglewood United | 34 | (25) | ||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2002 | Australia | 4 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | Inglewood United | ||||||||||||||||
| 2015–2017 | Perth Glory NPL U20s | ||||||||||||||||
| 2015–2020 | Perth Glory W-League | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Slobodan "Bobby" Despotovski (born 14 July 1971) is an Australiansoccer player who played 12 seasons in the top tier of Australian soccer. He played inNational Soccer League (NSL) forHeidelberg United andMorwell Falcons before moving toPerth Glory where he played eight seasons in the NSL and two in theA-League.
Despotovski was born inPerth, Western Australia, to father, Cvetko, and mother, Valentina.[1] Valentina was born inKačarevo,Pančevo and married Cvetko inVojvodina.
Only nine months after his birth his family moved back toYugoslavia because his mother was homesick. He grew up with his family in the town ofPančevo, 16 km (9.9 mi) outside the capitalBelgrade, and played junior level football withRed Star Belgrade.
When Despotovski was 15 he had a choice to continue eitherhandball which he says had always played a large part in his life, or to pursue a career in professional football, eventually he chose football and was selected to play for the reserve team at his first senior club,Dinamo Pančevo.
After a stint with theYugoslav People's Army during theYugoslav wars which ended as a result of self-inflicted injuries,[2] Despotovski returned to his birthplace in 1992 and continued his professional career withFloreat Athena in the Western Australian Premier League.[3] In 1994, he joinedHeidelberg in theNSL and left the club to join the now defunctNSL clubMorwell Falcons in 1995.
Bobby's career took off when he received a call from the thenPerth Glory general manager, Roger Lefort. The new club wanted Despotovski to lead their attack in the club's inaugural season and he certainly didn't disappoint scoring 14 goals in only 23NSL games.[4]
Despotovski was in the centre of a controversy when playing against theMelbourne Knights (a team primarily supported byCroatian Australians) at theKnights Stadium on 21 May 2001 he gave athree fingered salute to the predominantlyCroatian crowd which is aSerbian Orthodox symbol that represents Orthodox Christianity. As the Perth team left the stadium Despotovski and Perth coachBernd Stange were assaulted by angry Knights supporters. To avoid repetition of violence, the next Knights home fixture against Perth was played inLaunceston.[5][6][7][8]
He was one of the most successful strikers in the now defunctAustralian National Soccer League. Despotovski was with theWestern Australian team Perth Glory for 10 years, and holds their all-time goal scoring record.[4][9] For a couple of seasons, he formed a prolific partnership up front withDamian Mori.
Following the conclusion of the 2004/2005 season of theNSL Despotovski signed with Perth Glory for the 2005/2006A-League season after a brief stint with theBonnyrigg White Eagles in theVodafone Premier League inNSW. Despotovski finished the season as joint top goal scorer of the league and winner of theJohnny Warren Medal.[10] Season 2006/2007 started without Bobby because of his re-occurring back injury but he returned to partnerStuart Young up front.
Despotovski played 4 games forAustralia, three of them at the2002 OFC Nations Cup where he blasted four goals past theNew Caledonia goalkeeper.
He was the coach ofInglewood United in 2007, and the coach of Perth boys schoolHale School's 1st XI Soccer side in 2008.
He was variously the coach of thePerth Glory NPL U20s team and thePerth Glory's Women's team between 2015 and 2020.[11][12][13]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This section is empty. You can help byadding to it.(November 2025) |
Perth Glory
Australia
Individual
|  | |
