Dževad Prekazi, the Yugoslav midfielder whose powerful left-footed free kicks became part of Galatasaray folklore and whose first-team career was rooted in Partizan Belgrade, died on Sunday, 8 November 2026. He was 69. Partizan announced his death, and Galatasaray and the Turkish Football Federation joined the tributes. His long-range strike against Monaco in the 1989 European Cup quarter-finals remains a defining image of a run that carried Galatasaray to the semi-finals. The clubs did not announce a cause of death in the statements reviewed. Beyond a single memorable goal, their remembrances tell the story of a player celebrated across two football cultures.
Two clubs mourn a familiar figure
Partizan said it had received news of Prekazi’s death with deep sadness, calling the former midfielder one of the club’s legendary players. Its message used the nickname by which supporters knew him, Preki, and ended with a simple farewell: “Thank you for everything. Rest in peace.” The Belgrade club also recalled how regularly he returned after leaving as a player. Its memorial notice, dated 8 November, said funeral details would be announced later; it did not provide a cause of death.
Galatasaray’s tribute, published on 9 November, remembered a footballer whose goals and character stayed with supporters long after his departure. The Istanbul club described the joy of his performances as part of what drew a generation to its colours. The Turkish Football Federation separately offered condolences that day, recalling the titles he won in Turkey. Taken together, the statements show why Prekazi’s death resonated far beyond a single stadium: the midfielder was claimed with affection by communities on opposite sides of a formative chapter in European football.
Sources: In Memoriam: Dževad Prekazi · Camiamızın acı kaybı: Cevad Prekazi hayatını kaybetti · Cevad Prekazi'yi Kaybettik · Galatasaray, efsane futbolcusu Cevad Prekazi için başsağlığı mesajı yayımladı
Partizan years and a Yugoslav football education
Born on 18 August 1957 in Mitrovica, in what is now Kosovo, Prekazi began his football life before the modern borders of the region took shape. He developed at Partizan, signed professionally as a young man and played for the senior team from 1976 to 1983. Partizan’s own memorial credits him with 175 first-team appearances and 23 goals during that period. Those figures are the club’s stated record, rather than a number assembled from competing statistical databases.
The Partizan years brought trophies as well as grounding. The club lists three domestic championships, in the 1975/76, 1977/78 and 1982/83 seasons, and the 1978 Mitropa Cup. Those domestic honours belonged to the Yugoslav league era, not to the modern Serbian competition. He subsequently played for Hajduk Split before moving abroad. Looking back, Partizan highlighted not merely the medals but the relationship: it wrote that he regarded the club as a second home and followed its results even after his playing career had taken him elsewhere.
Sources: In Memoriam: Dževad Prekazi · Camiamızın acı kaybı: Cevad Prekazi hayatını kaybetti · Preminuo Dževad Prekazi
How Galatasaray became his other football home
Prekazi joined Galatasaray in 1985, entering a Turkish club in the midst of a rebuilding period associated with coach Jupp Derwall. Galatasaray’s official obituary says he was introduced to the move through former teammate Zoran Simović and made his debut against Samsunspor. His six-year spell lasted until 1991. The club attributes 185 appearances and 40 goals to him; its memorial does not specify that the appearance total covers league matches only, so it should not be described as an independently confirmed league-only count.
More important for the club’s place in Turkish football was the timing of his contribution. Galatasaray won consecutive league championships in 1986/87 and 1987/88, both with Prekazi in the side, according to its history and the Turkish federation’s tribute. Galatasaray recalls that he scored in the decisive Eskişehirspor match during the first of those title seasons. The titles helped establish the platform for a European campaign that followed. His reputation rested on distribution and vision as well as the heavy left-footed delivery that could turn a distant set piece into an immediate scoring opportunity.
Sources: Camiamızın acı kaybı: Cevad Prekazi hayatını kaybetti · Cevad Prekazi'yi Kaybettik · Galatasaray, efsane futbolcusu Cevad Prekazi için başsağlığı mesajı yayımladı
The Monaco free kick that defined a European night
On 15 March 1989, Galatasaray met Monaco in the second leg of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup quarter-final. Galatasaray had won the first leg 1-0 away, and the return fixture was played in Cologne rather than Istanbul. Early in the second half, Prekazi struck a free kick from long range to put his team ahead. Galatasaray’s detailed historical account places it in the 51st minute and estimates the distance at about 35 metres. Its 2026 tribute gives an approximate 40-metre figure, a reminder that the range is an estimate rather than a precisely measured statistic.
UEFA’s retrospective identifies the Monaco effort, specifically, as Prekazi’s celebrated free kick. Monaco’s George Weah equalised, making the second leg 1-1, but Galatasaray advanced 2-1 on aggregate to a European Cup semi-final. In UEFA’s retelling, Prekazi remembered the strike as unusually powerful and surprising even the defenders, who had not assembled a wall. The enduring significance was not the measurement of the shot: it was a goal that helped carry a Turkish club to a stage it had rarely reached, in front of a nation following the result.
Sources: Camiamızın acı kaybı: Cevad Prekazi hayatını kaybetti · Galatasaray's greatest European nights · O GÜN | Galatasaray yarı finalde
A different tie: the comeback against Xamax
Galatasaray’s route to Monaco included an earlier, very different night. Against Switzerland’s Neuchâtel Xamax in the second round, the Turkish side lost the away leg 3-0 before winning the return in Istanbul 5-0 on 9 November 1988. UEFA’s history records the comeback and distinguishes it clearly from the later Monaco quarter-final. The two fixtures are sometimes discussed together because both belonged to the same remarkable European Cup campaign; they should not be reduced to a single free-kick story.
The five goals in the Xamax return were scored by Uğur Tütüneker and Tanju Çolak, with two and three respectively, according to a historic match presentation published by Galatasaray itself. Prekazi started the return match, but he was not one of that game's scorers. The famous long-distance free kick in the following round was against Monaco. That distinction matters when recalling his career: getting the opponent and round right honours the record better than enlarging a legend with an inaccurate detail.
Sources: Galatasaray's greatest European nights · Nostalji Maçlar | 1988-1989 Sezonu Galatasaray 5 - 0 Neuchatel Xamax
An enduring connection across borders
After Galatasaray, Prekazi remained in Turkish football with Altay and Bakırköyspor before eventually leaving the country. Partizan’s tribute notes that a street in Istanbul bears his name, an unusual marker of the attachment between a foreign footballer and a city’s supporters. The clubs’ memorials describe him in different settings but return to similar qualities: technique, a decisive left foot and the personal loyalty he continued to show after changing teams. None of those memories requires an invented account of his final days.
For supporters who watched the 1989 European Cup, a ball flying from distance toward the Monaco goal will always be the shortest way to remember him. For others, the record is broader: Partizan’s 175 appearances and 23 goals, Galatasaray’s 185 appearances and 40 goals, championships in two countries and a career that connected Belgrade and Istanbul. The Turkish federation’s condolences and the two clubs’ public farewells underline that the response to his death is as much about a lasting relationship with fans as any one famous goal.
Sources: In Memoriam: Dževad Prekazi · Camiamızın acı kaybı: Cevad Prekazi hayatını kaybetti · Cevad Prekazi'yi Kaybettik · Preminuo Dževad Prekazi
