Veljko Paunović

Veljko Paunovic ( born August 21, 1977 in Strumica ) is a former Serbian football player.

Since 2006 he also has a Spanish passport.

Career

Paunovic comes from Strumica, which is located in present-day territory of Macedonia.

The son of former Yugoslav national player and coach Blagoje Paunovic ran through all the youth teams of the Serbian traditional club Partizan Belgrade. After playing one season in the first team of Partizan, in 1995 he joined the Spanish club CA Marbella. A season later, the move to Atlético Madrid came, for which he ran aground in the next six years. He played for the first and the second team of the club. During this time at Atletico, he was loaned out to RCD Mallorca twice and once at Real Oviedo. With Mallorca he was in the 1999 final of the European Cup Winners' Cup.

But he had 2002/2003 when he moved to CD Tenerife his best season. In 38 league games he scored 18 goals in the Segunda División.

He subsequently worked for Hannover 96, FC Getafe, Rubin Kazan and UD Almería he joined on 12 July 2008 back to Partizan Belgrade. There, he signed a contract for two years. On 24 December 2008 he announced his retirement as a football player.

On 29 June 2009 Paunovic completed a trial with New York Red Bulls. But he refused then to accept an offered one-year contract.

In May 2011 he moved to Philadelphia Union as a replacement for Carlos Ruiz, who could not play due to commitments with the national team of Guatemala. Paunovic was only in the squad of the Philadelphia Union reserve. His debut in Major League Soccer he gave on June 18, 2011. Two games later he scored his first goal for the team.

On January 18, 2012 Paunovic announced end of his career.

National

2002 Paunovic made ​​his debut for the Serbian- Montenegrin national team against Mexico. His first international goal he scored in his second and last application on 28 April 2004 against the national team of Northern Ireland.