Manager Reinhold Fanz’s team had played a fantastic season in the Regionalliga Nord: Their worst position over the season was in third place!

The “TORnados”
Born Vladan Milovanovic, “Milo” – as he was later referred to – was one of the top performers for Hannover 96. His professional career began at Serbian record holders Napredak Krusevac. In 1992 he transferred to Germany and joined the then Bundesliga team Dynamo Dresden. After brief stints at VfL Osnabrück, FSV Frankfurt and TuS Celle, he joined the Reds. Manager at the time, Franz Gerber, knew Milo from his time at Celle.

He impressed quickly and didn’t take long to establish himself as a key Hannover 96 player. After two years he had played 58 Reds’ games, scoring 49 goals. Playing alongside his striking partner Kreso Kobacec, the pair earned themselves the nickname “Die TORnados” (Tor meaning goal in German): Together they scored 52 times during Regionalliga season 1996/1997.

Promotion thriller
Yet from all of his goals, the most important one from Milo happened a year later in a relegation game in the 2. Bundesliga. After losing the first leg 0:2 against TeBe Berlin in the nation’s capital, the return leg was to be played in the Niedersachsenstadion – where nearly 50,000 fans awaited the team. After an hour Milovanovic got the nod from the manager to enter the game.

With the score at 1:0, and time running out, Milo took his moment to shine. A deep cross from Fabian Ernst was nodded back into the path of the waiting Milovanovic, who performed an outrageously exquisite overhead kick to level the scores and send the match into extra time, after which the Reds were victorious via a penalty shootout. Nobody knows where the club would be today without this moment of genius from Vladan Milovanovic.

The hero of this wonderful evening in May enabled the history of Hannover 96 – as well as the club -  to go forward in a positive manner: Vladan Milovanovic has been immortalised by the Reds’ fans due to his fantastic overhead kick.

- Daniel Moore