Novaković spent his youth career at Olimpija where he remained until the age of 19, when he was forced to leave and look for the opportunity to play professional football elsewhere as he was written off by the club officials who considered him unpromising and too skinny for a forward.

[3][4][5] Many years later, at the height of his playing career, Novaković revealed that people at Olimpija had demanded money in order to promote him to the main squad.

[5] He then went to play football for lower tier Austrian clubs where he rose to prominence, eventually signing with professional sides SV Mattersburg and LASK.

[6] In the same season, Litex qualified for the group stage of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup, where Novaković scored two of the clubs's four goals to help the Bulgarian team reach the round of 32, where they were eliminated by France's Strasbourg with 2–0 on aggregate.

FC Köln,[7] Israeli team Beitar Jerusalem[8] and Bulgarian champions Levski Sofia[9]) but despite his wish to continue his career in a different club he started, with three goals on three league appearances, the 2006–07 season with Litex Lovech who faced Koper from Slovenia and AC Omonia from Cyprus in the qualifying rounds of the 2006–07 UEFA Cup.

On 12 September 2008, coach Christoph Daum made him captain of the first team squad, however in late November 2009, he lost his captaincy due to a dispute with Köln's new manager Zvonimir Soldo.