Darko Božović

Darko Bozovic (Cyrillic: Дарко Божовић) was born on 9 August 1978 in Titograd, now Podgorica, in the Socialist Republic of Montenegro, then part of Yugoslavia. Although born in Montenegro, he spent nearly all of his football career in Serbia. He began his senior career with Teleoptik, the Belgrade club closely linked with Partizan, in 1996.

After Teleoptik, Bozovic played for Srem Jakovo from 1997 to 2000, Mladenovac from 2000 to 2002, Timok from 2002 to 2004 and Srem from 2004 to 2005, before joining Bezanija, with whom he won the Serbian First League in 2005 to 2006.

On 28 October 2006, in a home league match against Vozdovac, he saved a penalty from Milos Kolakovic in the 88th minute with Bezanija trailing 1-0, then headed the equaliser from a corner in the fourth minute of stoppage time. The match finished 1-1 and became the best known moment of his career.

In June 2007 he moved to Partizan. He was first choice for his first six months but lost his place in early 2008 to his compatriot Mladen Bozovic. He stayed until 2010, and in his time at the club Partizan won three Serbian SuperLiga titles (2007 to 2008, 2008 to 2009, 2009 to 2010) and two Serbian Cups (2007 to 2008, 2008 to 2009).

He won two caps for Montenegro, both friendlies in 2007: against Sweden in September and Estonia in October.

He later played for Sloboda Uzice, Zob Ahan in Iran and Bezanija again. In August 2013 he joined Happy Valley in Hong Kong. In January 2014 he was among players and staff arrested by Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption in a match-fixing inquiry; he was released without charge. He finished his playing career at Vozdovac in 2015.

As a coach he worked with goalkeepers in the youth sections of Teleoptik and Partizan, was goalkeeping coach of the Bulgaria national team from 2022 to 2023, and also worked at Teleoptik (2023 to 2025), Slovan Ruma and, from 2025, Zeleznicar Pancevo on the staff of head coach Radomir Kokovic.

Bozovic was known in football as Macak, the Cat. He was married to Martina, and the couple had two children.

Bozovic was diagnosed with a serious illness while working as goalkeeping coach at Zeleznicar Pancevo. At first he kept his condition private. When it became known, many friends and former team-mates came together to support him, and he received treatment in Turkey, which at first had some effect. He died on 25 October 2026, aged 48. The exact illness was not made public.

Zeleznicar Pancevo announced his death in a farewell message that read in part: "Even when you were not here, you were part of our family. You will always remain so." Serbian media including Blic, Sportklub, Kurir, Telegraf and Novosti reported the news, remembering him above all for his years at Partizan.

Bozovic is remembered as a reliable goalkeeper who won five major domestic trophies with Partizan and represented Montenegro, and as one of the rare goalkeepers to score from open play, with his last-minute header for Bezanija in 2006 often retold by former team-mates. After his playing days he passed on his experience to young goalkeepers in Serbia and to national team players in Bulgaria.