Adnan Golubović in an interview for Football Planet: After being thrown like a dog on the street in Italy, he used to deliver pizzas around Ljubljana to survive
Text: David Klemenc. Photo Grega Valančič / Sportida
Slovenians have a record number of top goalkeepers for such a small nation. Italy has been claimed by Samir Handanović, and Spain has been under the spell of Jan Oblak for a whole decade now, Žiga Frelih was recently the best in Portugal, and now he is in Slovakia. There are also Matevž Vidovšek, Igor Vekić, Ažbe Jug… Thanks to Adnan Golubović, we now also have our Romania. As our current interviewee shared with us in one of the most interesting and astonishing interviews of recent times, if not years, the path to this success was full of ups and downs. There were also serious injuries, and even … criminal extortion! As if that wasn’t enough, he was even robbed on this truly incredible journey! In short, a very intriguing story. Mildly put… After some youth stints in Ljubljana clubs, Adnan Golubović first experienced professionalism at Olimpija. Unfortunately for him, this story, likely to the detriment of many dragon fans, ended too soon, but not on his terms: “In that Olimpija, things were not organized; it was a time when Izet Rastoder was leaving. Nothing was known, there was no management to talk to. I didn’t see a future there. I gave them some time to decide, but there was no answer, so I left,” Adnan Golubović began his incredibly honest conversation with Planet nogomet journalist David Klemenc.
After parting ways with Olimpija, he went to the preparations of the Gorenjska lower league team Šenčur, where he was spotted by the then coach of Triglav, Siniša Brkić, during one of the friendly matches and invited to join. He decided to move to the Gorenjska capital, which turned out to be a good move from a playing perspective, as he was already on his way to the strong Domžale after just one season, as a replacement for the departing Nejc Vidmar. However, that was where the first of many troubles and peripeties began to accompany him throughout his career.
Adnan Golubović: “Well, I was a hothead…”
“I was close to the starting position, but then came an injury that sidelined me for a while. Because of that, Domžale were forced to bring in a new goalkeeper (Axel Maraval, note), who ultimately didn’t meet expectations. So, after my injury, I got a chance and even a call-up to the U21 national team.” It was during the national team gathering that he learned that after Luke Elsner‘s departure to Olimpija, the yellow family would be taken over by Simon Rožman, with whom he was already acquainted. He felt it was an excellent opportunity to elevate his career to a higher level, but the opposite happened.
“Shortly after we started working together, Rožman and I sat down, and in the meeting, he made it clear to me that he counted on me and was pleased with my efforts, but that relationship changed after the match in Celje, where we lost (2:1), even though the defeat wasn’t my fault. After that, he practically without a word moved me to the bench,” Adnan Golubović explained and honestly admitted that he also reacted inappropriately after that.
[caption id="attachment_52924" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Source of the photo: Dinamo Bucharest“Well, I was a hothead; I just couldn’t accept not being on the pitch. I went a bit crazy; I couldn’t calm down knowing that I was left out for no reason.” Because of this, he did not extend his contract in Domžale and was left without a club until one day, while on vacation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he received an interesting offer from his agent.
When his agent called and said that he had a club for him, Adnan Golubović accepted the challenge, but soon faced unexpected complications. “He said that he had a club for me, but I had to come to Zlatibor in Serbia the next morning, where the Romanians (Concordia Chiajna) were in training. They had suspended all three goalkeepers and were looking for new ones, he explained. I agreed, although it felt a bit strange, but I also told him that I had no idea how to get to Zlatibor, so he dictated names of towns and villages I needed to go to. I wrote everything down on paper and set off late in the afternoon.”
40 kilometers in the wrong direction, through fields and forests
He soon realized that the names on the paper would not be enough. As he says, his mobile phone did not work in Serbia, so the drive took much longer than he had planned. “I drove past Šabac towards Valjevo, but I missed the intersection and drove 40 kilometers in the wrong direction, through fields and forests. In the end, I stopped in a village where the innkeeper explained to me exactly how to proceed.”
When he finally arrived at the club hotel, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. No one was there to greet him, nor did anyone know who he was or why he was there. Luckily, he spoke the language and managed to arrange a room for himself. But a week later, he faced a bitter disappointment.
“One day, a representative of the club came to me and explained that they had reinstated three previously suspended goalkeepers and that they no longer needed me. I could go home, of course at my own expense…” After being left without a club, Adnan Golubović waited at home for the right call, which never came. Due to his experiences in Domžale, negative rumors spread across Slovenian clubs that he was a problematic player, which caused all the clubs he was offered to persistently reject him.
[caption id="attachment_70552" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Source of the photo: Dinamo Bucharest“Then one day, an agent called me and told me that he had something interesting for me in Italy. I knew about bigger clubs, but I had never heard of the town of Matera that he mentioned. I did a little search on the internet and found only pictures of stone architecture, as if I had stepped into the Middle Ages. I had only one day to decide, so I told him to send me the contract. I didn’t have a printer at home, so I went to a copy shop in Fužine, where I printed the contract, signed it, ‘scanned’ it, and sent it back—all without knowing what I was getting into,” he recalls today with a smile.
When he told his parents the good news, they were not very enthusiastic. “I came home and told them that I was going to southern Italy, and they started asking in shock if I was normal, if I was even using my head, what I was doing with my life, and that I definitely couldn’t go anywhere. But it was too late—I somehow convinced them that the contract was signed and that I would be sued if I didn’t come.”
Robbed on the way to signing the contract in Italy
After filling up his “little Fiat,” as he described it (he drove a Fiat 500, ed.), Adnan Golubović set off for Italy, which later turned out to be an unfriendly and fateful experience that took a toll on him both physically and mentally. “I stopped in Foggia, which was an hour away from my final destination, at a gas station to refresh myself after the long drive. Meanwhile, thieves took advantage of the opportunity,” Adnan recalls. Initially, due to fatigue, he didn’t even notice that they had stolen his wallet, all his money, cards—everything, except for his passport, which he had in a separate compartment.
When he arrived at the toll station and realized what had happened, he was in shock. He called the coach, who gave him the address and explained how to get to him. Adnan managed to reach his destination on the last drops of fuel. Instead of sympathy, he received scolding: “The coach first scolded me for being so careless, then gave me 50 euros so I at least had something to eat,” he continued, admitting that he still hadn’t told his family about the story. “I didn’t say anything to them since they had already lectured me at home before I left. I really didn’t need that classic ‘we told you so.’ My father and mother will actually only find out about this story now when they read the interview on your website!”
When Adnan found himself in Italy without financial means and support, he spent the first three months relying solely on friends who sent him money via Western Union. Since he didn’t want to tell his family what was happening, he had to live practically without income. “Only after three months did my coach allow me a few days off to return to Ljubljana, sort out new documents and bank cards, which enabled me to open an Italian bank account and finally start receiving my salary.”
His foot got stuck in the mud, and he heard a crack
From a football perspective, his first season on the Apennine Peninsula went excellently. He was on the verge of a transfer to Serie B, but this success, combined with the greed of the club, nearly ruined his career. Due to a serious injury, which the club downplayed, a great opportunity slipped through his fingers, and who knows where it could have led him if it had ended differently. “In one of the matches, while saving a penalty due to a poor pitch, I injured my leg. My foot got stuck in the mud, and I heard a crack,” he describes.
The diagnosis was a meniscus and cruciate ligament injury, which would typically require a longer recovery. However, the club, wanting a quick sale, did not disclose the severity of the injury. “They told me it was just the meniscus and that recovery would take at most three weeks.” They sent him to a specialist who merely “cleaned” the meniscus and didn’t address the cruciate ligaments, most likely under the club’s instructions to sell him as quickly as possible.
After the season in Matera, Adnan’s coach Gaetano Auteri took over Catanzaro, one of the biggest clubs in Calabria, and wanted to take the Ljubljana native with him. Despite offers from higher leagues, Adnan chose the option where he would be the first choice among goalkeepers rather than just a number in a bigger club. Even today, he cannot explain how he passed the medical examination with three doctors who did not notice any issues. He started playing and performed excellently in the first five rounds, but then he experienced a severe shock during one of the training sessions. With an awkward landing, he heard a crack again and immediately felt that something was wrong.
The news from Rome still haunts him
The club doctor reassured him that it was probably nothing serious but still sent him to a specialist in Rome. “What I experienced in Rome still haunts me today,” he recalls. “I injured my left leg during training, but the doctor starts examining my right leg and tells me there is something seriously wrong there. I told him that my right leg is healthy and that it’s the left one that’s injured.” He didn’t listen to him.
The doctor then made a diagnosis that no footballer wants to hear. The Ljubljana native discovered that he had completely torn cruciate ligaments in both legs and would face up to 10 months of rehabilitation to return to normal condition. “At that moment, my world collapsed,” Adnan Golubović admitted sincerely with a lump in his throat, who at the time was not yet aware that the injury would be just a small part of the problems waiting for him.
[caption id="attachment_10923" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Photo: Nik Moder / SportidaUpon returning from Rome to Catanzaro, Adnan was met by the sports director, who told him bluntly that they viewed him as someone who had let them down and that they needed a new goalkeeper, so they wanted to terminate the contract. Adnan did not want to hear any of it. He went to a hotel to take a few days to think, but the pressure became increasingly unbearable. Eventually, he actually couldn’t take it anymore. When he had enough, he “put his phone in the drawer” and stopped answering calls.
Then he found himself in a really unpleasant, even cinematic situation when he was called from the hotel reception that some people were looking for him. “I wasn’t expecting anyone, especially not what happened,” Adnan says. At the reception, three suspicious men were waiting for him, who without hesitation told him that he should be aware of who he doesn’t answer on the phone, and that the president of the club was calling him after all. They gave him time to prepare, and then took him to the club offices, where an even larger group of people was waiting for him.
He only hoped to come out with his head intact
Upon arriving at the office, Adnan was confronted by the president of the club and six other men who attacked him with accusations that he had lied about his injuries and that he was “stealing” money from the club. “All ‘suspicious’ faces. There were 10 of them, and I was alone. I admit I was shocked, even more scared, and it quickly became clear to me which direction things were going.”
They demanded that he immediately sign a termination of his contract. He tried to explain that he hadn’t lied and that it wasn’t his fault he got injured, but it was all in vain. With no other options, he ultimately terminated his collaboration and returned home. “At that moment, I was only hoping that I would come out with my head intact!”
After two seasons with Sloboda, he decided not to extend his contract, even though the club offered him improved terms. According to him, football in Bosnia has been somewhat disappointing. “I wanted to return to Slovenia. In Bosnia, there are too many things in football that don’t belong there, from biased referees to the influence of betting companies and mainly politics. When one of the three nationalities is in power in the football association, their clubs are always promoted for the championship – one time Serbian, another time Croatian, and the third time Bosniak.”
Adnan Golubović returned home after his time playing for Sloboda in Tuzla and continued his career in the ambitious Koper, where he worked under coaches Zoran Zeljković and goalkeeper coach Benjamin Levaka. He states that both mentioned professionals were key to his development, as he made significant progress on the Slovenian coast over two years and enjoyed football. “It was great in Koper. We won the cup, the team was top-notch by Slovenian standards, and I became a better player, mainly improving my footwork.”
The Romanians also asked Handanović
In the canaries’ jersey, he made 63 appearances and kept his net untouched 20 times. After this successful period, he received an offer from the Romanian giant Dinamo from Bucharest, which wanted to strengthen itself well before the new season upon returning to the first league. “Samir Handanović also deserves credit for my signing. They told me that someone from the club knew Handanović, and they consequently contacted him about me. Samir said that if he hadn’t had injury problems in the past years, we would be seeing me today in one of the top leagues, and they should be happy if they managed to sign me.” Golubović revealed.
As a native of Ljubljana, Adnan Golubović admits that he is proud of his hometown. Wherever he goes, he always compares other places to Ljubljana. He exchanged his peaceful home for the large and chaotic Bucharest. While he was impressed by the city center, he is most annoyed by the traffic jams, as he often loses several hours on the road during rush hour.
“They said we weren’t bad. We were terrible”
Among Romanian cities, he was most impressed by Brașov in Transylvania, where he had the opportunity to visit the famous Dracula’s castle. Golubović highlights that Romania’s highway infrastructure is not the best, which is why the team sometimes travels to certain away games by plane. Nevertheless, he believes the country has great potential and is slowly developing into a stable European member: “It’s evident that they were trapped in communism for too long.”
His current team, Dinamo Bucharest, is showing excellent performances this year, which is a huge relief for many fans, especially after last year’s unsuccessful season. “When we started, they told me we weren’t a bad team, but honestly, we were terrible. We were lost; we didn’t even know where all the ‘hits’ were coming from,” recounts Adnan Golubović.
They went into the winter break trailing by 12 points behind the club that at the time held a spot in the relegation play-offs, but after the arrival of a few new players in January, Dinamo started winning, which brought a miracle and survival in the league. “The fans gave us energy and motivation from match to match. Because of them, we rose and achieved survival.”
One call-up would be enough – it would all be worth it!
This season began with greater optimism, the financially stable management decided to refresh the team, bringing in some young, quality Romanian players. “At first, we wanted a safe survival, but now we see we can achieve more. We are in the upper half of the table,” proudly says Adnan Golubović.
Adnan Golubović, who has played in several European leagues throughout his career, states that the Romanian league is by far the toughest among all the leagues he has played in. He points to the high individual quality of players and the significant physicality in the game, which clearly demands strength and endurance from footballers. “The atmosphere in the stadiums is always electric, especially for us since we are one of the big clubs from Bucharest. When we play away, they often greet us with hostility, and the atmosphere in the stadium immediately makes you aware that you are not welcome. During the big Romanian derby against Steaua, they even threw flares at me, but nothing serious happened.”
Despite a busy schedule, Golubović still follows the Slovenian first league scene and especially the work of his goalkeeper colleagues. He mentioned a few names that he believes are currently among the best in Slovenia: “I think all Slovenian clubs have excellent goalkeepers, but if I have to highlight anyone, it would be Ažbe Jug, Matevž Vidovšek, and Metod Jurhar. Among the young ones, I would definitely choose Tim Štrasberger.”
In conclusion of this truly fascinating and incredibly honest interview for Planet nogomet, Adnan Golubović touched on the possibility of being called up to the Slovenian national team. “Of course, I wish for that; I think about it, but I don’t put too much pressure on myself. So many bad things have happened to me in my career that I don’t want to expect too much. But on the other hand, I’m in good form, I’m performing well in a quality league, so – why not? Just one call-up would be a dream for me. And then that evening when I would receive an invitation to the national team, I could go to sleep thinking it was all worth it…”
This text was automatically translated using AI.
Author: editorial Football Planet