Dejan Petkovic's career followed the script of many Eastern-European players. He started in his towns local team, moved on to national giant Red Star Belgrade, and eventually made his way to Real Madrid. At the time, Real Madrid had too many foreigners on its roster, forcing Petkovic to get loaned out a few times and eventually demoted to the Real Madrid Castilla, the clubs "B Team".
While at Castilla, he played a friendly match against Brazilian club Vitoria and had a phenomenal performance, so much so that Vitoria made an official offer for Petkovic. The Serbian attacking mid accepted, thinking that so many Brazilian players go straight from their league to European giants, maybe this could be his chance to get more visibility and put himself back on the map.
The outcome was the opposite, Petkovic instead became a legend in the Brazilian League and basically never left. He had 3 historic years at Vitoria, which included a title in their centennial year and after transferred to Flamengo, Vasco, Fluminense, Santos, among others.
Today Dejan Petkovic is retired from the sport, a permanent resident of Rio de Janeiro and still a present voice on TV. However, most impressively, he is the highest scoring foreigner in the history of the Brazilian League. Probably not what the Serbian had in mind when he first started but definitely a charismatic career that he can be proud of.