# Talk:Nikola Žigić

I am not too sure that he is the worlds tallest current player: I havn't yet seen statistics to say he is 2.03, rather he is often placed between 198 and 202cm (Eufo.de lists him at 2,02) which I am sure is the same as Peter Crouch of Liverpool. The other thing is that 2,03 is not quite 6 feet 10 inches. Croatian tennis player Ivo Karlović is 6'10 but in metres it is more like 2'07. Evlekis 20 March 2007 Blocked sock:Evlekis.
He is not the worlds tallest football player, he is the same hight as the Monaco striker Jan Koller who stands a proud 202cm

He will be the tallest very soon,since Koller is going to retire this or next season.
YXYX 12:07, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Zigic is not the world's tallest player: Lacina Traore of CFR Cluj in Romania is 2.03m (source: http://www.cfr1907.ro/en/team/main-team/27/lacina-traore/). I have corrected the article on this basis.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.182.183.11 (talk) 14:48, 16 October 2010 (UTC) 

This article should be moved to "Nikola Zigic" as it is the common spelling in English articles. A Google search returns:

651 of about 20,000 English pages for "Nikola Zigic" -"Nikola Žigić" -wikipedia. (see page 66 of the pages returned)
174 of 174 English pages for -"Nikola Zigic" "Nikola Žigić" -wikipedia. (see page 18 of the pages returned)
The Google search returns false numbers it is necessary to go to the last page returned by each search to see the true numbers.
A search using site:uk

158 English pages for "Nikola Zigic" -"Nikola Žigić" site:uk.  (page 16)
13 English pages for -"Nikola Zigic" "Nikola Žigić" site:uk. (page 2)
The UK search for "Nikola Zigic"  returns sites that include

http://football.guardian.co.uk (national newspaper)
http://www.independent.co.uk (national newspaper)
http:today.reuters.co.uk/ Reuters news agency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk  BBC
http://www.sundaysun.co.uk http://www.thesun.co.uk (national newspaper)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk (national newspaper)
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/ (national newspaper)
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk (national newspaper)
http://express.bitesizefootball.co.uk (national newspaper)
http://williamhillpitchsidelive.co.uk (national bookmakers)
and several local papers including the LondonEvening Standard
Non of the fourteen pages returned by -"Nikola Zigic" "Nikola Žigić" site:uk are for a newspaper, TV station etc.
--Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 16:47, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I suggest return the page to the original containing the diacritics. The name without the diacritics is neither an alternative spelling form in any language, nor an English language transcription, it is taken directly from sources which are either too dumb or too lazy to apply the diacritics which are a part of the Serbian language transliteration which is in turn the way in which it is carried into the English language. Evlekis (talk) 21:32, 17 May 2008 (UTC) Blocked sock:Evlekis.
See the WP:UE: "Use the most commonly used English version of the name of the subject as the title of the article, as you would find it in verifiable reliable sources ..." But what ever is agreed moving pages should be only be done with the move tab. Now that you have moved the page using cut and past you can only move it by placing a request at WP:RM. --Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 12:41, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

I have moved it back to the title with diatrics in order to perform a page history merge. For what it's worth, I believe we should use the version with diatrics; it's not our problem if the UK media are too lazy/don't know how to use them. пﮟოьεԻ 57 08:20, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
AFAICT You did not do a page merge the page histories (as the history on the other page was a cut and past move. The move you have made is contrary to Wikipedia guidelines. See WP:UE. If you want to place it under a different spelling then use WP:RM --Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 08:51, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
No idea what that acronym means, but I did perform a page history merge, as there were 7 edits to the redirect page which were edits to the article. пﮟოьεԻ 57 09:04, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
AFAICT is "As far as I can tell" (and has been used on internet news groups for at least 20 years), but I was wrong because here are the edits it is not clear to me why you would want to merge in some cut and past edits from another page as the first one the cut and past appears to show no change to this edit history. I have moved the page back as both WP:UE and WP:MOS#Foreign terms suggest that the spelling should be as used in verifiable reliable English language references and sources. --Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 09:23, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
This move proposal is completely ludicrous. WP:UE should not apply to people's names, except to say that the names should be written using a Latinised alphabet. Obviously names in Cyrillic script or Chinese/Japanese/other East Asian language should be transliterated into a Latinised alphabet, but to remove diacritics is madness. In some languages, "c", "ć", "ç" and "č" are completely different letters, so to use this article as an example, "Nikola Zigic" may be a completely different person to "Nikola Žigić". – PeeJay 09:12, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

If it is a completely different person then we should use the spelling of the name given in the English language references, then there can be no misunderstanding as to which person the sources refer to. --Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 09:23, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
I'm still not convinced that the English media knows what it's doing when it comes to foreign names. Most English keyboards don't have the letters with diacritics on them, and I think it's safe to say that many journalists are probably too lazy to look for the correct letter in their Character Map tool. Anyway, how are these for reliable sources? – PeeJay 09:34, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
It does not matter if they are lazy what matters is as WP:NC says "article naming should prefer what the greatest number of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making linking to those articles easy and second nature." Whatever the reason (and have you considered that that organisations like Reuters have style guides that their journalists have to comply with for example the Economist style guide says "Put the accents and cedillas on French names and words, umlauts on German ones, accents and tildes on Spanish ones, and accents, cedillas and tildes on Portuguese ones ... Leave the accents off other foreign names."[1]) most English speakers looking for this person will be looking for "Nikola Zigic". Further yes some reliable sits on the net will spell his name using accent marks, but we should follow the Wikipedia guidelines over the spelling of names, and AFAICT the common spelling of this man's name in reliable English language sources is without accent marks. --Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 10:03, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Rather than waste time with an RM, I've moved it back based on the unanimous support for diactrics at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football#Diacritics in article titles. пﮟოьεԻ 57 13:43, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Good move, Number 57. Anyway, I don't see how "Nikola Žigić" is unrecognisable compared to "Nikola Zigic", and it's certainly unambiguous. In fact, given what I said before about diacritics making the difference between one letter and the next, "Nikola Zigic" is probably more ambiguous than "Nikola Žigić"! Anyway, there is a redirect from Nikola Zigic to Nikola Žigić, so I really can't see what the problem is. – PeeJay 14:25, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Good move, but User talk:Philip Baird Shearer have reverted it.--Latouffedisco (talk) 16:55, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Interesting reading people. To be honest I was in favour of the 'correct' spelling move but am now in two minds. To me, the most realiable source is what is printed on the back of his shirt - which is always printed WITHOUT diacritics - but I don't see the issue in the move and redirect argument 82.47.43.229 (talk) 16:36, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Nikola Žigić/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: Gabriel Yuji (talk · contribs) 15:04, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
I'll review this one soon. Gabriel Yuji (talk) 15:04, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Lead
"He began playing football as a youngster with AIK Bačka Topola, and scored 68 goals from 76 first-team matches in the third tier of Serbian football." – 1) it would be interesting to date this events as you did with military service and Red Star Belgrade transfer; 2) it would be nice to clarify that a) the goals he scored were during senior matches, not during youth tournaments and b) that it was a three-year period; 3) "first-team matches" seems to imply he played from the start in all matches and did not came as a substitute in any of them but the source do not clarify it (and usually matches as substitutes are counted equally by databases).  Done
Not sure I agree, apart from the three-year time period. "first-team matches in the third tier of Serbian football" surely does clarify they were first-team matches, not youth competitions? and it doesn't imply starting each match: I'm sure some of them must have been as a substitute. I can change matches to appearances, if that would help. What I will change is "third tier of Serbian football", which should read Yugoslav, as it does in the body of the article...
Hm, now I see what "first-team matches" was standing for (I thought it to be the opposite of second-team, not youth team). So, it's fine. Gabriel Yuji (talk) 21:05, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
"Brief spells back in the third tier with Kolubara and Spartak Subotica preceded the start of his professional career with First League side Red Star Belgrade in 2003." — I thought his professional career started at AIK. Does the infobox is wrong? Or are you using "professional" and "senior" with different meanings? (and that would mean that AIK, Mornar, Kolubara and Spartak Subotica are not professional teams?)  Done
"Senior" means open-age (adult) teams, "professional" means being paid to work full-time as a footballer. The B92 source quotes Žigić saying he signed his first pro contract with Red Star in 2002 when he was 21, and before that he'd played in the lower leagues but that was amateur, they trained three times a week and played a game at the weekend: Prvi svoj profesionalni ugovor potpisao sam sa Crvenom zvezdom u 21. godini, 2002. Pre toga sam igrao u nižim ligama, ali je to bilo amaterski. Treniralo se utorkom, četvrtkom i petkom, a utakmice su subotom ili nedeljom.
Hm, I found it contraditory at first glance, but now I see. Interesting. So could it be clarified that the other teams are amateur ones? (well, probably saying Red Star is the first professional implies that others are amateur teams, but what's your opinion?) Gabriel Yuji (talk) 21:05, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
I wouldn't bother, to be honest. In the quote above, Mr Žigić uses the word amaterski, but I don't know what that meant in context of former Yugoslavia in the late 1990s/2000. Whether strictly amateur, i.e. entirely unpaid, or more likely what in England is called semi-professional, i.e. the player gets paid enough during the playing season to encourage him to turn up every week, but football is something he does alongside his paid job or his studies. Struway2 (talk) 12:55, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
"In three years with the club, he won a second double in 2005–06" — would you mind to link to double (association football)? It took me a time to understand this sentence. You can alternatively reword it as "he won both the First League and the national cup for the second time". But I guess a link is just fine.  Done
reworded with link (which should have already been there, thank you for noticing its absence)
"In August 2006, Žigić moved to Spain to sign for La Liga club Racing Santander, where his goals and his partnership with Pedro Munitis helped them to a mid-table finish." — it's not a problem at all but I do find repetitive the use of "to" here; I'd suggest: "In August 2006, Žigić signed for Spanish club Racing Santander, where his goals and his partnership with Pedro Munitis helped them to a mid-table finish in La Liga."  Done
reworded
"He then moved to Valencia, but was unable to establish himself as a regular in the starting eleven; he spent the second half of the 2008–09 La Liga season back with Racing on loan, for whom he scored 13 goals in just 19 matches." — I guess a period would be better instead of a semicolon as we have two separate sentences. I think a preposition linking the two would work too.  Done
separated
"Žigić signed his first professional contract, with one of the biggest clubs in the country, Red Star Belgrade" — so, it seems the lead is correct about the "professional"(?)  Done
see above
"After trials in France with Saint-Étienne and Créteil, and a brief spell with Kolubara, 3 goals from 8 matches in the Serbian third tier, Žigić signed his first professional contract, with one of the biggest clubs in the country, Red Star Belgrade." — it seems to me that the "3 goals from 8 matches in the Serbian third tier" part would fit better inside parenthesis or dashes. Alternatively, you can split this passage into two sentences.  Done
reworded
Personal life
"His younger brother Branko also became a footballer, most recently for Serbian First League club Proleter Novi Sad" — when? See WP:RELTIME.  Done
fixed
Early carreer
"Žigić's parents did not want him to take football seriously until he completed his education" — probably secondary education, right(?), but strict parents may require college or technical. It would be good to clarify.  Done
Our article on education in Serbia, which is pretty much a translation of the Serbian equivalent, says that in Žigić's schooldays, children began primary school at 6 or 7 and completed 8 years, at which point they could either leave, or continue with three or four years of either academic or vocational secondary school, and then college/university after that. THIS lists a number of footballers and what they were qualified for if football didn't work out. It says Žigić completed the "mašinska škola" (mechanical engineering school) at Backa Topola; such schools trained their students for work in basic trades like motor mechanic as well as for higher-level technical roles. Although it's a fun piece, there's no reason to disbelieve the factual bits. It's also backed up by THIS – which isn't WP:RS so I can't use it – which says he graduated from "srednja mašinska škola", secondary mechanical school, (where he was taught by his uncle who encouraged him to play football) and then did his military service. I've added the mech eng secondary school to the personal life section.
Nice (and an interesting information about Serbia). Gabriel Yuji (talk) 21:05, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
"for whom he scored 15 goals from 23 Second League appearances." — missing a source?
added: it was the result of breaking a sourced sentence in he middle to add the French trials
Red Star
"By the mid-season break, he had 12 league goals as well as the 6 in the UEFA Cup" — is the "the" before "6" necessary?  Done
Probably, yes. "as well as the 6 in the UEFA Cup" indicates to the reader that the 6 UEFA Cup goals are something they've already been told about; if none, or not all, or his UEFA Cup goals had previously been mentioned, I'd be more likely to simply write "...he had 12 league goals and 8 in the UEFA Cup". Or maybe "...and 8 altogether in the UEFA Cup", which carries an implication of the reader knowing about some but not all.
Fine. Gabriel Yuji (talk) 21:05, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
"Continuing the partnership with Marko Pantelić begun in the second half of 2003–04, Žigić continued to score freely in the new season." — not properly a problem but I would avoid repeating the same verb that close in the text.  Done
"Resuming the partnership..."
"His first goal, a header, appeared to have been scored from an offside position, but the second was spectacular" — is this someone's opinion? If it is, atrribute to them; if it is not, it is WP:NPOV to attribute this statement to Wikipedia. Also, a peacock word.  Done
replaced "spectacular", reworded to include "brilliant individual performance" attributed inline to Reuters' correspondent; probably safer to use English-language original for anything involving high praise (or the opposite). Struway2 (talk)
"but they failed to do so." — unsourced.  Done
fixed
"during which Žigić gave Red Star the lead with a header and Dušan Basta made sure" — a bit informal, don't you think so?  Done
reworded
Racing Santander
"he contributed eleven goals – ... – four assists and five penalties won in league competition" — does the dashes eliminate the necessity of a comma?  Done
Yes, I'd have thought so. Rule 2 here says they do, admittedly that's a US source, but it's the same in British English.
Hm, ok. Nice to know. Gabriel Yuji (talk) 21:05, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
Valencia
"Speculation regarding moves to the Premier League, came to nothing." — why the comma? I guess the subject ("speculation") should not be separated from the main verb ("came").  Done
Typo, I imagine: might have originally included detail of which bits of the Premier League he'd been linked with, and the comma was left behind when the detail was removed
"Resuming his partnership with Munitis in the first game of his second spell, Žigić scored the only goal of the visit to Real Valladolid, repeated the feat at Getafe two matchdays later" — matches?  Done
Changed to "two weeks later": I think "matchdays" was meant to imply La Liga matches (there were intervening Copa matches), but it doesn't
Birmingham City
"Media speculation suggested the fee to be in the region of £6 million." — when you say "media" I assume a variety of sources but currently there is only one. Anyway, you can use the already mentioned The Guardian source, current ref #12, as it also gives this number.  Done
The BBC ref for his signing also gives that figure, but it wasn't repeated after that sentence; added Guardian ref as well
"He made his debut on the opening day of the season away at Sunderland" — you already linked to Sunderland in the above paragraph so it is not necessary. See WP:OVERLINK.  Done
fixed
"David Pleat wrote that 'Birmingham earned their victory through terrific teamwork and astute deployment of Žigić's strengths'." — to those not familiar with Pleat (and to avoid people needing to click on the link), you could add a brief description like "Sports commentator David Pleat..."  Done
"Football manager turned commentator"
International career
"His next appearance and first start came some 14 months later;" — is "some" necessary here?  Done
Not necessary, no, but it reads better with it there. Struway2 (talk)
Style of play
"Exemplified in a powerful performance on his debut for Racing" — POV?  Done
reworded
Notes, references and external links
"The nickname is a play on the name of Spanish comedy act the Dúo Sacapuntas." — probably common sense in Spain, but is there some source for it?  Done
Sourced
Spotchecked affirmation #1: "During the Yugoslav Wars in 1999, Žigić's hometown was beneath the flight-path of NATO bombers heading for Belgrade; for much of that part of the conflict, the family home was without electricity or running water." — it is attributed to El Correo and the first paragraph of "Tiempos de guerra" covers all it.
Spotchecked affirmation #2: "A growth spurt from the age of 16 eventually brought his height to 2.02 m (6 ft 7 1⁄2 in), provoking suggestions that he might be better suited to basketball". — Politika backs up his 2.02 m but The Guardian says 6 ft 8 in. In the infobox, the 6 ft 1/2 in is supported by Rrezentacija.rs but it does not present his height in feet ("od čak 202 centimetra"). It is not a big deal but I guess it's better to follow the source. (Another source used in the article also gives 6 ft 8 in) The spurt at 16 is covered by the British newspaper but both The Guardian and Politika says the basket comparison was did when he moved to Red Star. Again, not a big deal, but where it is placed right now leads me to think it was said before the start of his carreer.  Done
Moved the growth spurt/basketball thing to his Red Star debut, which is at least implied in the Politika source.
As to the actual height, WP:UNIT requires the primary unit of measurement to be metric, so it's the height in metric that needs to be sourced, and the height in feet and inches is a conversion. There's complete agreement on 2.02m in reliable sources from his native country, from his clubs in Spain, and also from international sources such as FIFA (see e.g. the official squad lists for the 2010 World Cup). The result of conversion to feet and inches depends on the level of precision used: either nearest inch or nearest half-inch are commonly used, depending on a given publication's house style. MOS:CONVERSIONS suggests using "a level of precision similar to that of the source quantity value", which is probably why {{height}}, which is recommended for use with human height, defaults to nearest half-inch: {{height|m=2.02}} gives 2.02 m (6 ft 7+1⁄2 in), but a |precision= parameter can be added to make it convert to the nearest inch: {{height|m=2.02|precision=0}} gives 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in).
Spotchecked affirmation #3: "He scored twice in the 3–0 win in the Eternal Derby against Partizan, and celebrated by miming a basketball shot." — the source does cover the part of basket-like celebration but the game itself, its score and how many goals Žigić scored are not mentioned.  Done
Oops... they are now 
Spotchecked affirmation #4: "By mid-December, Koeman had given Žigić two weeks to convince him he was worth keeping, Valencia had not scored for seven matches" — the given source indeed covers it on "Ronald Koeman le ha dado un plazo de dos semanas para que le convenza". I'm only partially in doubt whether or not to consider that December 20 is mid-December. Again, not a big deal, but I guess just "By December" is fine. For the second part, I cannot say by this that Valencia had not scored for seven matches. However, I think if it can be due my lack of experience with BDFutbol.  Done
Maybe change to "With the January transfer window approaching" (accurate but non-specific) and add the date of the Copa game? I've clarified the BDFutbol reference to include the need to click on the "Matches" tab, and discovered it was six matches without scoring, not seven...
Spotchecked affirmation #5: "He is dangerous from set pieces, scoring many headed goals, particularly in the earlier part of his career, and knocking the ball down for others: when he joined Red Star, the coach set out the team in a 4–3–3 formation, with Žigić at centre-forward and two wingers to feed those strengths." None of the two sources seems to have anything on "particularly in the earlier part of his career", although the rest is all there. Uefa source explains the second part (after the colon) on "Key forward" subtitle.  Done
Removed "particularly in the earlier part of his career" as unsourced (albeit true). Will put it back if I can find something non-trivial to justify it. Struway2 (talk)
For current ref #14 (Maxifoot and Le Parisien) you can use <p> to separate the sources. It's better than <br> I think. Currently, if I did not check the Wikisource I would not notice there is a space between the sources. You can apply it on other sources if you think it produces a good result.  Done
I wasn't aware of that: thank you.
His Premier League profile redirects to the main page.  Done
That's an odd one. The site normally reduces the content of a player's profile when he stops playing in the PL, but it seems to have lost Zigic's entirely. It didn't add much anyway, so removed.
The rest is fine according to Checklinks.
So, that's it. There are no major problems, only small (technical or wording) drawbacks, so I'll put on hold for seven days. Nice job, Struway2! Gabriel Yuji (talk) 22:06, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your review, it's much appreciated. I've started replying/fixing issues, and will ping you when I think I've finished. cheers, Struway2 (talk) 15:09, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
Gabriel Yuji: thanks again for taking so much trouble with this review. I think I've finished now. cheers, Struway2 (talk) 12:55, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
Ok. Thank you for your patience and contributions to improve Wikipedia's quality! Now, it's a GA! Gabriel Yuji (talk) 14:53, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Nikola Žigić/CommentsTalk:Nikola Žigić/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
Last edited at 15:19, 8 April 2007 (UTC).
Substituted at 01:17, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on Nikola Žigić. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140714232607/http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20140701-farewell-to-ziggy-and-burke-1708957.aspx to http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20140701-farewell-to-ziggy-and-burke-1708957.aspx
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141006175540/http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20131009-credit-goes-to-novak-1106398.aspx to http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20131009-credit-goes-to-novak-1106398.aspx
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 23:14, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 5 external links on Nikola Žigić. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141016060220/http://mobile.premierleague.com/staticFiles/6e/55/0,,12306~152942,00.pdf to http://mobile.premierleague.com/staticFiles/6e/55/0,,12306~152942,00.pdf
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20151124063028/http://www.redstarbelgrade.info/statistika/istorija/prva-liga-srj-scg/view_match/2050.html to http://www.redstarbelgrade.info/statistika/istorija/prva-liga-srj-scg/view_match/2050.html
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20151124083331/http://www.redstarbelgrade.info/statistika/istorija/prva-liga-srj-scg/view_match/2051.html to http://www.redstarbelgrade.info/statistika/istorija/prva-liga-srj-scg/view_match/2051.html
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20151125220611/http://www.sportskacentrala.com/index.php?s=read&cat=1&id=3873 to http://www.sportskacentrala.com/index.php?s=read&cat=1&id=3873
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20151125214128/http://www.sportskacentrala.com/?s=read&cat=1&id=4257 to http://www.sportskacentrala.com/?s=read&cat=1&id=4257
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 18:07, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

Following the sources, e.g. the subject's profile at reprezentacija.rs, which describes itself as Istorija fudbalske reprezentacije Srbije (History of the Serbian national football team), and his profile at NFT, a well-used source for national team information, this article listed his 14 appearances for the team named Srbija i Crna Gora (Serbia and Montenegro) separately from the remainder for the team named Srbija. As far as I'm aware, it's standard practice is to use historically correct names for teams played for. 
As an aside, the Serbian Football Federation has a numbered list of its matches on its website. At #1 is a friendly against the Czech Republic in August 2006. Nikola Žigić played in that match, and the reprezentacija.rs source lists it as his first for Srbija, all previous having been for the team called Srbija i Crna Gora.
Recently, editors have been persistently changing the infobox to display all his international appearances under the name of Serbia. There was no team named Serbia in 2004 when he started playing international football. I'd appreciate it if the editor(s) would either explain their reasoning here as to why they're going against the sources, or else leave the article be. Thank you. Struway2 (talk) 14:31, 3 February 2021 (UTC)