Yugoslavia’s hero Dragan Stojković came to Japan in 1994 to join Nagoya Grampus. ‘Piksi’ fascinated the fans with his magical skills for eight seasons, until 2001. He won the Emperor’s Cup twice and was awarded the J.League MVP prize in 1995.
After hanging up his boots in the summer of 2001, Stojković held important positions such as president of Football Association of Yugoslavia (later Football Association of Serbia and Montenegro) as well as president of Red Star Belgrade. Then in 2008, he retuned to Nagoya, where he was appointed as manager.
Grampus jumped up to the third place in the league in his first year and advanced until the semifinals of the AFC Champions League the following year. In 2010, Nagoya managed to sign some crucial reinforcements, including Marcus Tulio Tanaka, and had a great start of the season. They stayed on top of the table for most of the year, and comfortably secured their first league title with still three matches left to play.
As a result, Stojković was awarded the Manager of the Year prize, and became the only person in the J.League history to be both MVP as a player as well as Manager of the Year.
Nagoya had another good season in 2011, finishing second in the league, but in the following two campaigns they were not as successful as in previous years, dropping to the seventh place in 2012 and eleventh place in 2013. Stojković stepped down at the end of that 2013 season.
In six seasons as Nagoya manager, he registered 103 wins, 42 draws and 59 losses.
Leaving a great legacy at Nagoya both as footballer and as manager, ‘Piksi’ is admired not only by Grampus supporters, but also by J.League fans at large, and to this day unanimously seen as one of the legends who have played and managed in Japan.
