This article is part of the Guardian’s 2018 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who have qualified for Russia. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 14 June.

Vladimir Stojkovic remembers the incident as though it were yesterday: the day furious Red Star Belgrade fans stormed the Serbia team coach in attempt to hurt him – and nearly did.

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“They were rocking the bus from both sides,” he recalls. “My team-mates told me to stand in the middle of the bus but somehow they [the fans] managed to smash the door to get in. Pushing through a wall of smoke they were looking for me with torches in their hands. However, I was saved by my team-mates. Dejan Stankovic jumped in front of me, and Nikola Zigic followed after him. The thing is, the fans respect them. They are the Red Star legends. And that’s how it ended. But one of them was only inches away from getting to me.”

The incident happened in 2010 before Serbia were due to play Italy in Genoa in a Euro 2012 qualifier – the reason for the supporters’ anger was that Stojkovic had recently joined Red Star’s bitter rivals Partizan Belgrade.

Stojkovic started out at Red Star and, after a brief spell away, became the team’s No 1 during the 2005-06 season before joining Nantes at the end of that campaign. As a youngster he had also declared: “I wouldn’t join Partizan for all the money in this world. When you hate something it’s really that simple. My blood is red and white.”

Those utterances – together with the fact that he was an honorary member of Red Star and a beloved favourite among the club’s ultras, Delije (Heroes), meant that the switch to Partizan (albeit only on loan from Sporting Lisbon) was deemed too difficult to take. But if the supporters who attacked the bus thought it would stop Stojkovic from playing for Serbia, they were wrong.

“They thought I would never play again. But after that I was more determined than ever to prove them wrong. That’s when the T-shirt came to mind,” Stojkovic says, referring to the moment he further infuriated the Red Star faithful by revealing a shirt with the message of “please forgive my ugly past”. This came after the long-awaited Eternal Derby between Red Star and Partizan, less than two weeks after the notorious Genoa incident.

His international dream – almost made a nightmare – started in 2006. A promising few matches for the French Ligue 1 side Nantes were followed by a downturn in form and a move to Vitesse Arnhem where Stojkovic also failed to prove his worth. The Portuguese giants Sporting came calling in the summer of 2007 with a five-year deal that was supposed to be a clear indication of their intentions. An early injury saw Stojkovic lose his starting spot to a young Rui Patricio, something he would never reclaim. Loan deals at Getafe and Wigan Athletic – where Stojković managed a combined nine league appearances – led to his return to Serbia.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stojkovic celebrates with his Partizan team-mate Cleo after beating Red Star in Belgrade on 23 October 2010. Photograph: Koca Sulejmanovic/EPA

Stojkovic joined Partizan on loan before the club’s Champions League group stage campaign in 2010, and the move was made permanent a year later. Stojkovic was on a mission of his own when he arrived at Partizan. Unfit and with little to no playing time under his belt he suggested he might “temporarily step away from the national team”, arguably at the most inopportune moment as Serbia prepared to kick of their Euro 2012 qualification campaign.

A commanding string of appearances for Serbia and Partizan put paid to that and after less successful spells at Ergotelis, Maccabi Haifa and Nottingham Forest, he returned to Partizan in 2017.

The 34-year-old’s confidence is sky high going into the World Cup. He won the Serbian Player of the Year award for 2017, beating Nemanja Matic and Dusan Tadic, and will be travelling to Russia as the most-capped goalkeeper in Serbia’s history.

All this should be more than enough motivation for the Partizan keeper to keep throwing punches towards those who continue to judge him.

“Goalkeepers have an 80% more difficult job than any other player on the pitch,” Stojkovic says. “It’s us goalkeepers against the 20 outfield players. The goalpost is your only friend. And you have to go plunging head-first where others won’t stick their leg out. There’s no one to protect your back. No one but the goalposts.”

Milos Markovic writes for Sportske.net

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