The place in Valencia remembers his mastery, 28 goals in the championship and that he was the best football player in Spain, he brought Real Madrid the Champions League cup after 32 long years, but before all that, his great football story started in Podgorica.
The legendary Montenegrin football player Predrag Mijatović recalled, among other things, his first steps in Zlatica, Cvjetni brijeg and under Gorica in the show (Failure of Champions), hosted by the former Croatian national team player Mario Stanić.
"Out of pure curiosity, one day I went to Koma training, because my friends with whom I played football were already training there. And there I just did what I always do when we were 'playing balls', as we called football," Mijatović began. .
However, that was all that Mijatović had to do that day in the early eighties of the last century.
"After that training, coach Brano Milačić came up to me and started telling me something that I didn't understand at the time: 'You're great, you'll be a great soccer player one day.' ", says Mijatović.
His first football days were entirely related to the coach who later marked the recent history of Budućnost in a special way, to whom the fans gave him the nickname "sir Brano".
"Milačić soon went to OFK Titograd, he pulled a few of us and that's how my story started. Then, at the age of maybe 14, I started to realize that football could be interesting for me, but I could never have guessed that it would to be a profession", Mijatović does not hide.
OFK Titograd was then a branch of Budućnost, so the next step was logical.
"Yes, there was an invitation from Buducnost and I went to sign the contract alone. And on a bicycle. I remember that I left it 200-300 meters from the stadium, because I didn't want anyone to see that I came to sign the first professional contract on a bicycle . It's a bit strange. I signed the contract, I didn't even read it, honestly. If they had given me a piece of paper with a 20-year contract written on it, I would have signed it. And it was for one thousand dollars and four years," said the former Buducnosti football player , Partizan, Valencia, Real, Fiorentina and Levante.
The future was then full of talents, players who would later make great careers...
"I can say that it was crucial at that moment in my career that the coach of Budućnost was Stanko Spaco Poklepović, who had the guts to put young players in the team," Mijatović admits.
He first felt like a star in Podgorica (then Titograd) after the famous "Chileans" conquered the planet.
"Spaco loved me, I always played, but only after winning the World Youth Championship in Chile with Yugoslavia did I feel like someone. Until then, for the fans, Dejan Savićević, Željko Janović and the others were in front of everyone, but after Chile they also talked about me , as the successor of Savićević," says Mijatović.
Ronaldo, me, Zidane - sorry about the Ballon d'Or, but I'm glad to look at that list
The kind of career Mijatović had is perhaps best expressed by the fact that in 1997 he was second in the Ballon d'Or selection - behind one of the greatest geniuses of all time, the Brazilian Ronaldo, and ahead of the equally great Zinedine Zidane.
"Being the second player in the world is a big thing, but when you are already so close to the Ballon d'Or, it hurts that you didn't win it. It was an ambition that I didn't manage to realize later. It's kind of one of the few things that make me feel guilty that I didn't manage to won it. It almost escaped me, because Ronaldo really had a great season in Barcelona. He first, me second, Zidane third - when I get nostalgic, I'll be glad to look at that list," said Mijatović.
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