Ivica Osim | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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_(cropped).jpg) Osim giving an interview in 1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President of theFootball Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina normalization committee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 18 April 2011 – 13 December 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | See list
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| Succeeded by | Elvedin Begić(as sole President) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Ivan Osim (1941-05-06)6 May 1941 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 1 May 2022(2022-05-01) (aged 80) Graz, Austria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Bare Cemetery, Sarajevo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Bosnian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 3, includingAmar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parents |
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Ivan Osim (6 May 1941 – 1 May 2022), best known asIvica Osim, was a Bosnian professionalfootballer andfootball manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Bosnian football managers of all time, he is also seen as one of the most influential football managers in the formerYugoslavia.[1]
As a player, Osim was in theYugoslavia national team and played at the1964 Summer Olympics. He also represented Yugoslavia atUEFA Euro 1968, where he won a silver medal and was voted into theTeam of the Tournament. As a manager, Osim won a bronze medal with Yugoslavia at the1984 Summer Olympics as an assistant, and reached the quarter-finals of the1990 FIFA World Cup as head coach of the Yugoslavia national team.[2] He also reached the1984–85 UEFA Cup semi-finals as manager of his hometown clubŽeljezničar.
Osim was head coach of theJapan national team, before suffering astroke in November 2007 and subsequently leaving the post.[3] In April 2011,FIFA announced that he had become president of the interimcommittee to run theFootball Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the country was suspended from all international competitions.[4] He served until December 2012.
Osim died in May 2022, after years of health issues following his stroke.[5]
Osim was born duringWorld War II inSarajevo, precisely one month after theNazi Germaninvasion of Yugoslavia, to Slovene-German father Mihail "Puba" Osim,[6] who worked as amachinist at the railways, and Polish-Czech mother Karolina. Both of his parents were also born in Sarajevo.[7] Following the end of the war, he started playing football in theŽeljezničar youth system. He studied mathematics at theUniversity of Sarajevo.[6]
Osim was married to Asima and they had three children, two sons, Selmir andAmar, and daughter Irma.[2] His son Amar was a football player himself, who afterward also became a successful football manager. Since 1994, Osim had lived with his wife mostly inGraz, Austria.[8] Discontinuities only occurred when he lived in Japan during his managerial career there and when he visited Sarajevo in his function as advisor for theFootball Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Osim began his professional career with hometown clubŽeljezničar in 1959. He is considered one of the best Bosnians to step on a football pitch and was known as a ruthless dribbler. Osim stayed in Yugoslavia until the end of 1968, as transfers abroad were prohibited for players under 28 at the time. In December 1968, he went to the Netherlands, to play forZwolsche Boys. This stay lasted only three months, due to a knee injury. In 1970, Osim signed withStrasbourg and played the rest of his career in France, playing also forValenciennes,Sedan and again at Strasbourg.[2][9]
Osim made his debut forYugoslavia in an October1964 Olympic Games match againstMorocco, and has earned a total of 16 caps, scoring eight goals. He also played atUEFA Euro 1968 where Yugoslavia reached thefinal, losing toItaly.[2][10]
Osim's final international game was an April 1969World Cup qualification match away againstSpain.[11]
When his playing career ended in 1978, Osim took the managing job at the club where he began playing,Željezničar. He managed the club until 1986, and finished third in theYugoslav championship once, reached theYugoslav Cup final once and theUEFA Cupsemi-finals once.[2]
Osim assistedIvan Toplak, head coach of the Yugoslav Olympic team, at the1984 Summer Olympics where Yugoslavia won thebronze medal.
In 1986, he took over theYugoslavia national team. The first qualifying cycle forUEFA Euro 1988 ended in failure with an embarrassing 1–4 home loss againstEngland. Contrary to expectations and custom considering the fate of Yugoslav head coaches who presided over prior failed qualifying campaigns, Osim was not fired by theYugoslav FA largely thanks to personal authority of FA presidentMiljan Miljanić who wanted Osim to be given another chance.[12]
Osim's Yugoslavia rebounded in the1990 FIFA World Cup qualification, finishing ahead ofFrance andScotland. At the1990 FIFA World Cup, Yugoslavia reached the quarter-finals by eliminatingSpain 2–1 in the round of 16, and proceeded to faceDiego Maradona'sArgentina in the quarter-finals. Despite losing a defender,Refik Šabanadžović, to a red card at the half an hour mark, Osim's team held on through the entire game and extra time, only to lose onpenalties.[2][13]
Yugoslavia qualified forUEFA Euro 1992, but Osim resigned on 23 May 1992; as his family inSarajevo facedbombardment during theBosnian War. "My country doesn't deserve to play in the European Championship," said Osim, "On the scale of human suffering, I cannot reconcile events at home with my position as national manager."[14] Yugoslavia was banned from the event, and its newly independent states have since competed as separate nations. Osim's home national team,Bosnia and Herzegovina, had to wait further 23 years to qualify for their first major football competition, having done so for the2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil.[15]
Osim became the new manager ofPartizan in the summer of 1991, in parallel with coaching the Yugoslavia national team. He won the1991–92 Yugoslav Cup with Partizan, having eliminated his old club Željezničar during thesemi-finals of the competition.[2]
After leaving Yugoslavia, Osim managedGreek Alpha Ethniki clubPanathinaikos from 1992 to 1994, winning theGreek Cup andSuper Cup in 1993, as well as finishing second in the league in 1993.
In 1994,Heinz Schilcher, whom Osim had played with inStrasbourg, convinced him to manage Austrian clubSturm Graz. Osim led theBlackies to win theAustrian Bundesliga in 1998 and 1999, theAustrian Cup in 1996, 1997 and 1999 and theAustrian Supercup in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
The club also appeared in theUEFA Champions League from 1998 to 2001 under Osim's guidance. Until 2022, Sturm was the only Austrian club toqualify from their group stage and play amongst the last 16 of the Champions League.Red Bull Salzburg repeated that achievement in the2021–22 season, more than two decades after the Sturm team led by Osim.[16]
From 2003 to 2006, Osim was manager ofJEF United Chiba of theJ1 League and built a contender despite the club's modest means. The club came closest to its first league title in 2003, when it finished third in the season's first stage and second in the second stage. In 2005, JEF United won its first major title with Osim as manager, theJ.League Cup.
On 21 July 2006, Osim was appointed head coach of theJapan national team, replacing Brazilian manager and former playerZico, who had resigned after the end of the2006 FIFA World Cup. Japan defeatedTrinidad and Tobago 2–0 in Osim's debut as head coach on 9 August 2006.
At the2007 AFC Asian Cup, he failed to lead Japan to its third successive title, losing toSaudi Arabia in the semi-finals and toSouth Korea in the third place play-off onpenalties. Osim said, "I feel like I've dropped my trousers. Twice," in describing his own managerial performance, pointing out that he did not rest the tired players.[17] During the tournament, Osim reduced his interpreter to tears during a dressing room tirade, in which he called his players "amateurs" following a 1–1 draw againstQatar,[18] and refused to watch the penalty shoot-out againstAustralia in the quarter-finals, saying "I didn't see it because it was bad for my heart. I don't want to die while I coach Japan's national team. I want to die in my hometown, Sarajevo."[19]
Osim's remarks gained popularity with Japanese fans, andWords of Osim (オシムの言葉,Oshimu no kotoba) (ISBN 4797671084), a collection of his quotes published in 2005, sold 400,000 copies and was on the bestseller list in Japan.[19]
On 18 April 2011,FIFA announced that Osim would head an interimcommittee to run theFootball Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the country was suspended for two months from all international competitions by FIFA.[4] He served as head of the committee until 13 December 2012.
On 16 November 2007, Osim suffered astroke at his residence inChiba, Japan while watching a friendly match betweenAustria andEngland on television.[19] He was in a coma for almost three weeks during which time he was visited by notable people of world football likeMichel Platini andSepp Blatter among others. Eventually, Osim regained consciousness on 3 December 2007 and asked his wife, Asima, "What's the score?" of the game he was watching at the critical moment when he suffered the stroke. He was then moved from anintensive care unit to a general ward at theJuntendo University hospital inUrayasu, Chiba on 23 December.[2]
On 7 December 2007, theJapan FA formally announced the appointment ofTakeshi Okada, who coached Japan during the1998 FIFA World Cup, to replace Osim asJapan head coach.[20]
On 1 May 2022, Osim died at his home inGraz, Austria, five days short of his 81st birthday, after years of health issues following his stroke.[21] After the news of his death, leading regional figures from the world of football and politics paid tribute to him. Croatian football manager and former playerVelimir Zajec said "Švabo has also left. The days inPanathinaikos are not forgotten. A great coach."[22]Serbia national team head coachDragan Stojković called Osim an "intelligent man, a football strategist who had great intuition, who was one of the most important football names in the former Yugoslavia and will be remembered that way."[23]Bosnian Presidency chairmanŠefik Džaferović said that everyone will remember Osim as a "top footballer and football manager, but also a great man and patriot, with unique charisma and first-class moral qualities."[24]
On 4 May, the coffin with Osim's body was laid out in the middle of theMerkur Arena,Sturm Graz's home ground, and thousands of fans were present when the stadium was floodlit for 81 minutes in honour of Osim.[25] He was buried inSarajevo at theBare Cemetery on 14 May 2022.[26] Thousands of people attended Osim's funeral and it was also broadcast live on national television.[27] He was survived by his wife Asima, their daughter Irma and their two sons, Selmir andAmar.[2]
In May 2023, the city of Graz renamed the forecourt of the Merkur Arena toIvica-Osim-Platz ('Ivica-Osim-Square').[28] That same month, the street Zvornička 21 in Sarajevo, whereŽeljezničar's home groundGrbavica stadium is located, was renamed to Ivica Osim Boulevard.[29]
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | |||||||
| Željezničar | 1 June 1978 | 1 May 1986 | 301 | 118 | 81 | 102 | 039.20 | ||||
| Yugoslavia | 29 October 1986 | 25 March 1992 | 51 | 27 | 10 | 14 | 052.94 | ||||
| Partizan | 1 July 1991 | 30 June 1992 | 42 | 29 | 5 | 8 | 069.05 | ||||
| Panathinaikos | 1 July 1992 | 13 March 1994 | 72 | 48 | 11 | 13 | 066.67 | ||||
| Sturm Graz | 1 June 1994 | 14 September 2002 | 383 | 207 | 81 | 95 | 054.05 | ||||
| JEF United Chiba | 23 January 2003 | 19 July 2006 | 142 | 69 | 40 | 33 | 048.59 | ||||
| Japan | 20 July 2006 | 29 November 2007 | 20 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 065.00 | ||||
| Career Total | 1,011 | 511 | 230 | 270 | 050.54 | ||||||
Željezničar
Strasbourg
Yugoslavia
Individual
Partizan
Panathinaikos
Sturm Graz
JEF United Chiba
Japan
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