Ever since I started this project, I was wondering what had ever become of Nenad Nikolić.
He only appeared in 26 MISL games in the 1989-90 season. Details before this were sketchy, as were details after this. There was a Nenad Nikolić who coached in Iran, but they were born two years apart, and the one in Iran was playing in Europe while the mystery man was in the MISL.
I had always hoped that perhaps he was just living a simple life in retirement somewhere in the former Yugoslavia. But knowing the turmoil of the area in the mid 90s through 2000s, I also knew he could have possibly met an untimely end.
The limited info I had on Nikolić didn't seem to add up. I had something like three different birthdates on him and no birthplace aside from "Yugoslavia." One source (who inexplicably listed him as being born in 1949) said he was born in Lapalan, Yugoslavia. With Yugoslavia having broken up in the 1990s, I hoped to find which country the city was now a part of. Unfortunately I could find nothing on the city.
Finally, I found something.
Apparently the city was Lipljan, now a part of Kosovo. His family moved to Belgrade in present-day Serbia when he was young.
After his lone season in the US, Nikolić returned home to Belgrade, where he opened a family food processing shop. He also played for FK Proleter Zrenjanin and FK Čukarički, both of whom he had played for prior to his time in Tacoma. He also served as a reservist in MUP Serbia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Nikolić was working as a security guard at MUP headquarters in Belgrade. He was working on the night shift on April 30, 1999 when the building was bombed. While attempting to rescue people injured by the first bomb, a second one was dropped, killing him and injuring 28 others.
A year earlier he had been seriously injured in an attack by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army while he was on a bus.
Since 2014, FK Čukarički has held the annual Nenad Neša Nikolić Memorial Tournament in his memory. The food processing shop, now called NENAD, is still in operation today.
