Interviews

LIDIJA STOJKANOVIĆ MADE HISTORY | FIRST LADY IN SERBIAN FOOTBALL WITH UEFA PRO LICENSE

05.07.2021.

In days when the Marketing Team of the Football Association of Serbia is being praised by various international football institutions, above all, FIFA and UEFA for the creative promotion of women’s football and the great action “Football is for everyone, football is for girls”, Serbian football has the first lady with UEFA PRO License. Along with great players of our football, former prominent members of the National Team, Lidija Stojkanović, the current Head Coach of the Women’s Youth (U19) National Team, made history!

– I was in the eighth generation of coaches who attended the UEFA PRO Course within the Football Association of Serbia. The group included many football names known to the general public such as Nikola Žigić, Sasa Ilić, Danko Lazović, Nenad Kovačević, Aleksandar Luković, Marko Pantelić…. names who have achieved representative careers and have great experience as players, they have worked with top coaches and it was a great pleasure to “share the bench” with them – says Lidija Stojkanović. – I must emphasize that I am very proud and happy because I got the opportunity to attend this program. It was a big challenge for me but I wanted to improve in what I do and I am grateful to the Football Association and the Coaching Organization for the opportunity, and of course to the European House of Football, who helped me in this whole process.

It will remain written that Lidija Stojkanović is the first lady with the highest degree of Coaching Diploma in Serbia…

– There is a large number of female coaches with a PRO license in Europe. I hope that, in time, our views will change as well. I want to emphasize that there are more and more young and promising girls in Serbia who want to work as coaches, so I hope that my example will be an incentive and motivation for more colleagues to believe in themselves and their work. To improve and educate as we can only progress with knowledge and constant improvement – said Lidija Stojkanović, Head Coach of the Women’s Youth (WU19) National Team and first lady with a UEFA PRO License in Serbian football.

OUR GIRLS ARE REAL AMBASSADORS OF SERBIA

It is enough to say Football is for everyone, and Lidija Stojkanović also thinks that women’s football in Serbia has a beautiful future…

– Women’s football in Serbia is on the rise, there are more and more girls who train, and this was shown by the campaign launched by the Football Association – “Football is for everyone, football is for girls”. The number of clubs is also growing, but there must be a patience for the full development. I must emphasize that many of our senior players play very successfully in well-known European clubs and what is very important they are the real ambassadors of Serbia and Serbian women’s football. Definitely, Serbian women’s football is becoming more and more visible on the football map of Europe.