Miroslav Blažević
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| Full name | Miroslav Blažević | ||
Miroslav "Ćiro" Blažević [ˈmirɔslaːʋ ˈɕiːrɔ ˈblaːʒɛʋitɕ] (born February 10, 1935) is a Bosnian [1] football manager. He achieved his greatest success as the coach of the Croatian national team, which claimed third place at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He is currently the manager of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a post he was appointed to on 10 July 2008.[1]
Football career
Early career
Blažević was born to a Bosnian Croat family in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. His career as a player was, by his own admission, average; therefore, he began his coaching career at a relatively early age. He started as a coach where he ended his playing days—in Switzerland. He first led FC Vevey (1968-71) then his former team FC Sion (1971-76), Lausanne Sports (1976-79) and finally Switzerland's national team (as interim coach for two games in 1976).[2]
Success with Dinamo
Blažević returned to the former Yugoslavia in 1979 to coach NK Rijeka. After winning solid 10th place with Rijeka in a strong Yugoslav Football Championship, Blažević went to NK Dinamo Zagreb, one of Yugoslavia's four most respected teams (the other three were Crvena Zvezda, Partizan Belgrade and Hajduk Split) in 1980. After a mediocre first season, where Dinamo finished in 5th place, Ćiro became a legend in 1982, winning the Zagreb outfit their first Yugoslav Championship success for 24 years.
Next year, Dinamo won the Yugoslav Cup and led a long battle with Partizan and Hajduk in the league. Partizan became 1983 champions and Blažević left Dinamo for the first time. He claimed that he had to escape because he was about to be arrested as one of the leading Croatian nationalists; while Ćiro was by no means popular with the authorities, many see this as pure self-propaganda.
However, Ćiro went back to Switzerland, winning the Swiss Championship with Grasshopper-Club Zurich in 1984. After that he briefly coached Greek club PAOK Thessaloniki in 1985. In 1986, Ćiro was once again in Yugoslavia, this time as manager of Kosovo's FK Priština. Under Ćiro's command Priština achieved First Division status and he again became a folk hero, this time among Kosovo's Albanian majority.
In the same year he became Dinamo Zagreb's coach for second time; during this period he failed to accomplish any significant results and therefore left again in 1988. His next team was FC Nantes of France; Ćiro was there until 1990. His stint with Nantes is best remembered for his alleged involvement in game-fixing scandals that sent to prison high football officials like Bernard Tapie.
Croatia tenure
In the 1990s, with Croatia gaining independence, Ćiro joined the Croatian Democratic Union and became President Tuđman's admirer and close friend. For the third time he became Dinamo (now named NK Croatia Zagreb) coach and president at the same time. Ćiro won the 1993 Croatian Championship and 1994 Croatian Cup, but then left his favorite club once more, citing his reasons for doing so as needing to focus on managing the Croatian national team.
Ćiro was national team manager from 1994 on a part-time basis, but only a year later it became a full-time job as Croatia faced its first qualifying ciclus for the European Championship. Croatia won the first place in qualifying group, sensationally ahead of Italy and directly entered Euro 96 in England. Blažević was about to gain some world-wide fame.
Croatia passed group stage with wins against Turkey and current European champions Denmark and loss to Portugal, to face Germany in quarter-finals. Germany won 2-1 and went on to win the event, but Ćiro and Croatians claimed that the Swedish referee Leif Sundell was somewhat biased towards the Germans.
However, greatest things lay ahead, as Croatia was trying to qualify to the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. They won second place in the qualifying group behind Denmark and ousted Ukraine in a play-off for the tournament.
1998 World Cup
The Croatian squad of 1998 was full of accomplished players who played for top European clubs, including the likes of Zvonimir Boban, Davor Šuker and Slaven Bilić, and they were well led by Blažević. In France they created one of the greatest all-time World Cup sensations by winning the third place play-off. In the group stage, Croatia eliminated Japan and Jamaica, suffering a non-significant loss to Argentina in the final game. In the knockout stages they passed by Romania, winning 1-0 from a penalty kick. This prepared them for a quarter-final against Germany. Ćiro and the Croatians got their revenge with a shocking 3-0 win that stunned the world. However, Croatia were stopped by the hosts France in semis; a somewhat undeserved 2-1 defeat to the eventual champions. It should be noted that Blazevic made a critical coaching decision in that semi-final as he failed to insert his most talented player Robert Prosinecki when the game was in the balance at 1-1. Instead he opted for Silvio Maric to replace the injured Boban after halftime and Croatia eventually lost the game 2-1. In the third-place match, Prosinecki started and immediately made his presence felt by scoring the first goal and delievering a wonderful defence splitting pass which resulted in Croatia's second goal. Croatia won against Holland 2-1 to claim the bronze. Just like in 1982, Ćiro was again the national hero.
The rest of his stint as Croatian manager was not so successful. Croatia failed to qualify for Euro 2000, after finishing a disappointing third in a qualifying group behind FR Yugoslavia and Ireland. Ćiro retained his position and began to build a new team, filled with younger players for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. However, after Croatia opened the qualifiers with two draws, he was forced to resign in autumn 2000.
Iran tenure and return to Croatia
Well known for his 1998 sensation, Ćiro accepted an offer to lead the Iranian national team. He quickly developed a following by many of the Iranian fans. Ciro kept the 3-5-2 formation that Iran had played with previously in the 96 Asian Cup, in which Iranian national team had won third place. He also introduced new players to Team Melli. Rahman Rezaei, Javad Nekounam, and Mirzapour are all players who gained fame in the Ciro era. After Iran failed to qualify to World Cup 2002, in a 2-1 aggregate defeat to the Irish national team, Ćiro was back in Croatia, first saving NK Osijek from relegation and then again in Dinamo. In his forth term as Dinamo coach, Blažević won the Croatian Championship in 2003, but left again same year after clashing with his long-time friend, Dinamo's vice president Zdravko Mamić.
Ćiro then led Slovenian NK Mura for few months before becoming the coach of Croatian side NK Varteks, a post he held until the end of the season.
Stint at Hajduk
Ćiro controversially announced that he was going to coach Hajduk Split in 2005-06, having expressed his desire to coach the southern Croatian side for decades; many fans were sceptical due to his association with Hajduk's arch-rival Dinamo. Not surprisingly, his arrival caused a great deal of controversy; Hajduk fans had differing opinions, with a significant number seeing Ćiro as a miracle worker that would help Hajduk regain its former glory.
Those expectations weren't met; Hajduk under Ćiro's leadership immediately got eliminated from European competitions, following an 8-0 aggregate defeat at the hands of Hungarian side Debreceni VSC; the 5-0 second leg drubbing being the most humiliating result for the Split club at Poljud stadium. The opening stages of the new league campaign brought about another series of humiliations, finally forcing Ćiro to resign on September 18th, followed by Igor Štimac, former Hajduk player and one of his main supporters in club administration.
Neuchâtel and NK Zagreb
In October 2005 he went back to Switzerland and coached Neuchâtel Xamax, replacing Alain Geiger in an attempt to save the club from relegation after they had won just one out of their first 10 games of the season. Although Ćiro achieved some memorable victories with Neuchâtel against Swiss powerhouses FC Basel and FC Zurich, they finished the season in 9th place (in a 10-club league) and went to relegation playoff. They were eventually relegated after losing to another Swiss team Ćiro had managed 35 years earlier, FC Sion, 3-0 on aggregate, and his tenure there ended in June 2006.
Once again, he returned to Croatia, this time to take over NK Zagreb. The club experienced a successful 2006-07 season which saw them finish third behind Dinamo and Hajduk and earned them a spot in Intertoto Cup 2007. However, in the following season the team made for an early exit, losing against their first Intertoto opponent Vllaznia on away goals. After Ivica Vrdoljak and Mario Mandžukić were transfered to city rivals Dinamo Zagreb at the beginning of the season, the team saw a string of mediocre results before finishing the season sixth. Immediately after the last game of the season, Ćiro announced that his stint at NK Zagreb had come to an end by mutual consent between him and the club's chairman.[3]
Coach of Bosnia and Herzegovina
On July 10, 2008 Ciro was appointed coach of Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team [1] replacing Meho Kodro, who was dismissed by the Football Federation officials after he refused to take charge of the national team for a friendly against Iran.[4]
Records
National teams record
| Team | Tenure* | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Win % | Points per game | Honours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland [2] | Sep 1976 - Oct 1976 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Croatia | Mar 1994 - Oct 2000 | 73 | 36 | 22 | 15 | 49.31 | 1.78 | 1996 Euro - Quarter-final 1998 World Cup - Third place |
| Iran | Apr 2001 - Nov 2001 | 19 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 52.63 | 1.78 | |
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | Aug 2008 [1] - present | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 00.00 | 0.00 | |
| Totals | 94 | 46 | 26 | 22 | 48.93 | 1.74 | ||
- *Dates of first and last games under Blažević; not dates of official appointments
Honours
Club
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International
- 1996 Euro: Quarter-finals
- 1998 World Cup: Third place
Individual
Personal life
Ćiro was a member of late President Tuđman's HDZ, but he wasn't happy with new pro-EU HDZ leader Ivo Sanader. Therefore, he decided to run for President as an independent candidate.[5] Polls predicting the 2005 presidential election results usually gave him 1-2% of the vote. In the end he got 17,847 votes (0.80%) and was eliminated in the first round of the election.
References
- ^ a b c "Bosnia-Herzegovina turn to Blažević". UEFA.com. 10 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b "Switzerland - International Matches since 1905". RSSSF. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Ćiro odlazi iz Kranjčevićeve" (in Croatian). Sportnet.hr. 09 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Kodro fired as Bosnia-Herzegovina boss". UEFA.com. 17 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Ex Croatia Coach Runs For President, Miroslav "Ciro" Blazevic: So Much More Than A Coach". Soccerphile.com. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)
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- 1935 births
- Living people
- Bosnia and Herzegovina footballers
- Croatian football managers
- Swiss football managers
- UEFA Euro 1996 managers
- 1998 FIFA World Cup managers
- Croatian politicians
- Non-Iranian football managers in Iran
- Iran national football team managers
- Croatia national football team managers
- Bosnian Croats