Jokanovic takes over at Partizan Belgrade

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbian first division leaders Partizan Belgrade named former Yugoslavia and Chelsea midfielder Slavisa Jokanovic as their new coach on Tuesday.

Jokanovic takes over from Miroslav Djukic, who was earlier in the day appointed head coach of the Serbian national team after guiding the under-21s side to the European Championship final in the Netherlands in June.

The 39-year-old Jokanovic has no prior coaching experience and was originally assigned to the club's administrative department before Djukic's unexpected departure last week.

Partizan president Tomislav Karadzic was confident that Jokanovic, who scored 10 goals in 64 international appearances, would carry on successfully where Djukic had left off.

"We believe Jokanovic can bring further improvement to the team and only one of the board members abstained while all the others voted in favour of appointing him," he said.

"Some people were reserved earlier because he has never coached a club before but they were equally sceptical when Djukic took over."

Partizan top the standings with 41 points from 17 matches, while Red Star have 35 and third-placed Vojvodina Novi Sad 34.

They have also reached the Serbian Cup last eight but were kicked out of the UEFA Cup in August after their fans started a riot at Bosnian rivals Zrinjski Mostar in the first qualifying round of the competition.

(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; editing by Matthew Jones)