A right-sided defender who can play at either full-back or centre-half, Branko Ilic has been a regular in the Slovenia squad since making his debut against Serbia in August 2004. A difficult spell at club level cost the 27-year-old his place in Matjaz Kek’s starting line-up towards the end of the Zmajceki’s qualifying campaign, but a March move to Lokomotiv Moscow could be his ticket back into the starting XI.<\/P>
Ilic had started in each of Slovenia’s opening four South Africa 2010 preliminaries, helping the team to important wins over Slovakia and Northern Ireland, but the loss of his first-team place at Real Betis saw him drop out as Kek’s side went on to secure qualification. The Spanish side had paid €1.5 million to sign the Ljubljana-born defender in 2007 after he impressed on loan following successful spells with NK Olimpija and FC Koper in his homeland. However, Ilic fell out of favour during the 2008\/09 season, which ended in relegation for Betis, and was on the move again in September 2009, joining FK Moscow on loan.<\/P>
The Russians were sufficiently impressed to make the arrangement permanent when Betis released Ilic from his contract in January of this year, but any hope of stability was dashed just a few weeks later when the club was disbanded following the withdrawal of its main sponsor. This development left the big defender a free agent and, on 10 March, Lokomotiv Moscow swooped to snap him up on a two-year deal. Earlier the same week, Ilic had earned his 36th cap in Slovenia’s 4-1 friendly win over Qatar and he will be desperate to add to that tally during South Africa 2010.<\/P>","e_index":4};