Mirko Vučinić

Early career

Vučinić started out at his hometown club Sutjeska Nikšić before being snapped up by Lecce in Italy during the summer of 2000 at age 16. The man who initiated the transfer was the club's sporting director at the time, Pantaleo Corvino, who has since developed a reputation for having a good eye when it comes to football talent coming out of Eastern Europe.

In his fourth season for the club, 21-year-old Vučinić scored 19 goals in 28 Serie A games, including a hat-trick versus Lazio on 1 May 2005. Following that successful season, his progress came to a halt with only nine goals recorded in 31 games as his career stalled due to injury.

Roma

On 30 August 2006, Vučinić signed a one-year loan contract with Roma worth €3.25 million, with an option of buying 50% of his registration rights from Lecce at the season's conclusion for an additional €3.75 million. Vučinić signed a 1+4 year contract, which worth €1.07M, €1.6M, €1.8M in the first three seasons in gross annually, then increased to €2.1 million in the last two seasons.

2006–07 season

During his first season in Rome, he did not feature much as he had operations on his left knee twice. Also, the presence of the European Golden Boot winner Francesco Totti as the lone forward of Roma's tactical formation under head coach Luciano Spalletti did not give Vučinić much playing time. Despite this, he succeeded in scoring three goals: his first goal for Roma in the 1–0 victory against Siena on 28 January 2007, his first goal in the UEFA Champions League during the quarter-finals match 2–1 victory against Manchester United on 4 April 2007. He also scored another Serie A away goal against Catania in a game that saw Roma beat the Sicilians 2–0.

2007–08 season

At the beginning of the 2007–08 season, Roma paid Lecce the pre-agreed price of €3.75 million to sign 50 percent of Vučinić's rights. He decided to wear the No. 9 jersey, previously owned by Vincenzo Montella in the last eight seasons, and also stated that he would like to do the same that Montella did at Roma.

As veteran Francesco Totti was usually deployed as a lone striker, Vučinić began to play as left winger in Luciano Spalletti's 4-2-3-1. He scored his first goal of the season in the 2–1 victory against Sporting Clube de Portugal, in the Champions League group stage, allowing Roma to get the vital goal to earn them three points.

In the following game, away to Milan at the San Siro, with Francesco Totti injured, Vučinić started as a striker and scored a header, from a cross by his teammate Cicinho. It was the only goal of the game as Roma picked up a win over its rival. This proved decisive again, as in the game against city rivals Lazio, Roma won by 3–2, with Vučinić leaving his mark with a left-foot equalizer and an assist to Simone Perrotta's goal. Another decisive goal of Vučinić was a header against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu, securing a 2–1 win for his side as well as qualification to the successive round.

2008–09 season

In June 2008, Roma finally bought Vučinić outright by paying Lecce €12 million, made Roma had paid €19 million in total to Lecce.

On 4 November 2008, he scored two goals in Roma's UEFA Champions League group stage match against Chelsea, emerging as 3–1 winners. Roma made it to the round of 16, where they lost to Arsenal on penalties, with Vučinić missing the target in the shootout with a weak shot down the middle that was easily saved by goalkeeper Manuel Almunia.

2009–10 season

On 1 June 2009, Roma announced Vučinić had signed a new four-year contract, under which the gross wage of the 2008–09 season would increase to €3.3 million as well as €4 million in 2009–10 season; €4.2 million in the 2010–11 season; €4.5 million in 2011–12 season and €4.7 million in 2012–13 season. The 2009–10 Serie A campaign started off poorly for Roma, forcing head coach Luciano Spalletti to resign after two opening losses. Arrival of new head coach Claudio Ranieri initially failed to change matters with the team continuing to slide down the standings as Vučinić got soundly booed by Roma fans in early November 2009 against Bologna when he finally scored his first goal of the season. After winning that match, however, Roma went on a 24-match unbeaten run in the league, mounting a credible title challenge by the end of the season, in large part thanks to Vučinić's improved form and steady goalscoring efforts that included a hat-trick versus Udinese and a brace in the win against heated crosstown rivals Lazio.

2010–11 season

The 2010–11 season began well for Vučinić, scoring the injury-time winner against defending league champions Internazionale. As the season progressed, however, he experienced a loss of form and his goals output dipped dramatically. Later in the season he was linked with a move to Tottenham.

The team was also going through turmoil as it was way off pace for the title after challenging for the Scudetto the previous few seasons. Head coach Ranieri was sacked and replaced with Vincenzo Montella. Vučinić's form didn't improve much as his loss of confidence became very evident in April when he missed open net sitters in two consecutive home matches – first in Serie A versus Palermo with the score tied at 1–1 (Roma eventually lost 3–2), and then three days later in the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg versus Inter (Roma lost 1–0).

2011–12 season

On 30 July 2011, it was confirmed that Juventus had signed Vučinić for €15 million from Roma, with a 4-year deal worth a reported €3.5 million [in net] per year. He scored his first goal for the club on 21 August 2011 in the 2–1 defeat to AC Milan in the annual Trofeo Luigi Berlusconi curtain raiser to the Italian season.

Vučinić scored a 32-metre goal in extra time to help Juventus to a 2–2 draw against Milan on 20 March 2012, helping his side to a 4-3 victory on aggregate and progression to the 2012 Coppa Italia Final.

2012–13 season

The second season of Vučinić started exceptionally well, proving to be a vital player at several occasions. His first Serie A goal came during his second appearance against Udinese on 2 September 2012, the end of the year came soon after and his goal tally stood at 4 goals on 14 appearances and 4 assists. On 9 January 2013 Vučinić scored in the 96th minute against A.C. Milan to bring Juventus to the semi-finals of Coppa Italia where they will face Lazio. The new year started very well for the Montenegrin, as he managed to score once again against Udinese.

2013–14 season

On 1 May 2014, in injury time of Juventus' Europa League semi-final elimination against Benfica, Vučinić was sent off for a fight with opponent Lazar Marković despite neither being on the field of play at the time, Marković having been substituted and Vučinić still on the substitutes bench.

2014–15 season

On 4 July 2014, Vučinić joined UAE Arabian Gulf League side Al Jazira for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of €6 million.

Serbia and Montenegro

Vučinić played for Serbia and Montenegro's U21 national team and was later one of two Montenegro-born players chosen to play for Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 FIFA World Cup (the other one being Dragoslav Jevrić). He had already been capped three times for the national team, but on 23 May 2006 he got injured and could not participate in the competition.

Montenegro

After Montenegro became an independent country on 3 June 2006, and a new national team was to be established, Vučinić initially opted to play for the Serbian national football team (as he was identified as a Montenegrin Serb), but eventually decided to play for his native country. He earlier said, on February 1, 2006, in light of the possibility of a Serbian-Montenegrin union split, that "according to me, it is not a good idea". In a match against Croatia the same month, he shouted "Serbia" and showed the three-finger salute. However, in September 2006 in a press conference in Rome, he said, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport "I am hundred percent Montenegrin and happy that the union with Serbia has ended". He scored the first goal of Montenegro's history when he netted a penalty kick in the team's first international match on 24 March 2007, a 2–1 friendly win against Hungary.

Goals

Style of play

A quick, strong, talented, and technically gifted player, who is capable of both scoring and creating decisive goals for his team, Vučinić can fill any attacking position, but is often deployed as a winger on either flank, as a centre-forward, or as a deep lying striker. He has been praised for his creativity, touch, dribbling, positioning, vision, footballing intelligence, and short passing accuracy, which enabled him to create space for teammates and also make him an effective assist provider; he is also known for his ability to score powerful long range goals with both feet as a striker. Despite his talent and skill, throughout his career he has also drawn criticism for his behaviour and unpredictability on the pitch, as well as his tendency to be inconsistent; his work-rate in big matches has also been brought into question at times.

Club

¹Includes Kup Jugoslavije, Coppa Italia, UAE Arabian Gulf Cup and UAE President's Cup

²Includes UEFA Europa League, UEFA Champions League and AFC Champions League.

³Includes Supercoppa Italiana and Arabian Gulf Super Cup

Club

Individual