Name: Žarko Olarević



Country: Yugoslavia | Serbia
Club: Lille OSC
Number: 11
Position: ★WF, AMF, SMF
Side: LF/LS
Age: 28-30 years (28/07/1950)

Height: 182 cm
Weight: 76 kg

Attack: 76
Defence: 35
Balance: 80
Stamina: 77
Top Speed: 76
Acceleration: 74
Response: 73
Agility: 75
Dribble Accuracy: 78
Dribble Speed: 76
Short Pass Accuracy: 81
Short Pass Speed: 79
Long Pass Accuracy: 84
Long Pass Speed: 86
Shot Accuracy: 76
Shot Power: 95
Shot Technique: 81
Free Kick Accuracy: 92
Curling: 91
Header: 75
Jump: 70
Technique: 85
Aggression: 70
Mentality: 74
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 83

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition: 6
Weak Foot Accuracy: 4
Weak Foot Frequency: 4
Consistency: 6
Growth Type: Standard/Lasting

CARDS:
P07 - Early Cross
P10 - Long Ranger
S02 - Passer
S04 - PK Taker

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Tactical Dribble - Passing - Penalties - Middle Shooting


Attack/Defence Awareness: Balanced


INFO:
A remarkable free-kick shooter, with a magical left foot, Zarko Olarevic was one of the most striking Lille strikers of the late 70s/early 80s. Specialist in dead balls. Excellent technician, fantastic crossing ability, great swerve. His balls would drop really low when shooting or crossing. A great passer, he often went with accurate through passes or split weighted passes from the deep. On the other side, he was very slow and rarely used his right foot.

Describing his shot power, many comments say that, probably with T. Mihajlovic, P. Nikezic and J. Bukal, it was the strongest in Ex-Yugoslavia. Goalkeepers trembled when he took a free kick, Olja Petrovic knows best, who from more than 30 meters did not even see the ball when it ended up in the net. When it comes to free kicks, it is said he doesn't lack Platini's skill. Against Velež twice in the net, both goals were from the free kick that Enver Marić, the representative goalkeeper, did not even blink, after the match he reached out and congratulated. While playing for Lille, he shook the St. Etienne net with Ćurković.

Feared for the unpredictable trajectories he knew how to give to his balls, people no longer said free kicks like "Platini" but free kicks like "Olarevic" at the time. A winger or striker, Zarko had the technical background of any Yugoslav player of the time. Trained at Partizan Belgrade, he will have a second youth in France after a stint in the modest club FK Radnički Kragujevac and a detour to Belgium. Interested in the Lille project, he joined the northern club which nevertheless evolves in D2. Lille will have an excellent season and manage to finish 1st in their group with the bonus for the Yugoslav striker a title of top scorer of group B with 25 goals scored. Back among the elite, Olarevic enchants the Grimonprez-Jooris crowd and continues his momentum, with 17 goals. He will mark the pace after two more seasons. At the end of the contract, it is Le Havre that wins the good deal. If the Yugoslav has been a man of the HAC only two seasons, he will have had time to register 42 goals in 67 league games. In 1984, he hung up his boots at Olympique de Marseille, being promoted at the end of the season.

Olarević emerged from the youth team of FK Partizan Belgrade, moving up to the first team for the 1967/68 season. From 1969 to 1971 he played on loan for FK Proleter Zrenjanin in the 2nd Yugoslav League. After the end of the loan period returned to Belgrade, he played in the 1971/72 season for FK Partizan Belgrade. All bells rang in Humska, Vojvodina gave 50 million RSD, he did not want to go to Sarajevo who asked as well. When Miljan Miljanić invited him to come to Crvena zvezda, the black and whites did not want to hear, it was unthinkable at the time. Vojvodina did not give and did not want to wait for 15 million compensations, so they sent him to Kragujevac Radnički. After arriving in Kragujevac, he played for FK Radnički 1923 Kragujevac from 1972 to 1974 in the 2nd Yugoslav League and from 1974 to 1976 in the 1st Yugoslav League. Since the club was relegated at the end of the season, he left it and went abroad for the first time. In the 1976/77 season he played for the Belgian first division club Royal Antwerp; He then spent nine years in France, two of them as a coach.

He played 440 official matches for seven clubs and scored 197 goals.