Bojan Prašnikar (born 3 February 1953) is a Slovenian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player. Prašnikar managed the Slovenian national team three times, between 1991 and 1993, in 1998, and between 2002 and 2004.

Playing career

Prašnikar started his professional football career at his home town club NK Šmartno ob Paki, where he was the top scorer of the

Slovenian Republic League The Slovenian Republic Football League ( sl, Slovenska republiška nogometna liga) was the highest football league in Slovenia within the Yugoslav football system. During the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia it was known as the Ljubljana Subas ...

in the 1975–76 season. After the season, he moved to Olimpija of

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

, spending only one year there before returning to Šmartno, where he played for the next six seasons. During this period he was the league's top scorer on three occasions and won the Slovenian national league title in 1981. In 1983, he transferred to SVG Bleiburg of Austria where he played for one season before retiring.

Coaching career

After retirement, Prašnikar focused on coaching, starting his managerial career at Elkroj, before moving on to coach various other clubs –

Celje ) , pushpin_map = Slovenia , pushpin_label_position = left , pushpin_map_caption = Location of the city of Celje in Slovenia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Cou ...

, Mura, Olimpija, and

Rudar Velenje Nogometni klub Rudar Velenje ( en, Rudar Velenje Football Club), commonly referred to as NK Rudar Velenje or simply Rudar Velenje, is a Slovenian football club from Velenje which competes in the Slovenian Second League. History The club was fo ...

. His most successful spell however, came while in charge of

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

from 1996 to 2000. Under his guidance, the club won the Slovenian league four times and qualified for the group phase of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

(the only Slovenian club to ever achieve this), after defeating Genk and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

in the qualifying rounds. Bojan Prašnikar was the manager of the

Slovenian national football team The Slovenia national football team ( sl, Slovenska nogometna reprezentanca) represents Slovenia in men's international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Slovenia, the governing body for football in Slovenia. The squad ...

during three time spans. After Slovenia's independence in 1991 he was named the first head coach of the national team. He remained in the position until December 1993, when Zdenko Verdenik took charge of the Slovenian affairs until the end of the unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the

FIFA World Cup 1998 The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. Prašnikar was re-installed head coach in December 1997, but his second spell at the helm of Slovenia lasted for only four month as in April 1998 he resigned due to his commitments with

on club-level. He was replaced by

Srečko Katanec Srečko Katanec (; born 16 July 1963) is a Slovenian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Uzbekistan national team. At international level, he was capped for both the Yugoslavia and Slovenia national teams. ...

. His third spell in charge of the Slovenian national team started in July 2002, when the

Football Association of Slovenia The Football Association of Slovenia ( sl, Nogometna zveza Slovenije or NZS) is the governing body of football in Slovenia. It organizes the Slovenian PrvaLiga, first division (1. SNL), Slovenian Second League, second division (2. SNL), Slovenian ...

appointed him the successor of Katanec after the disappointing first round finish of the national team at the

FIFA World Cup 2002 The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

and Katanec's swift resignation. This job lasted until May 2004. Not qualified for the

2004 European Football Championship The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

tournament, the Slovenian FA replaced Prašnikar with

Branko Oblak Branko Oblak (born 27 May 1947) is a Slovenian football coach and former international player. He usually played as an attacking midfielder or deep-lying playmaker. Playing career Brane, as he is often known, started playing football at the you ...

, who was the head coach of the Slovenian U21 at that time. On 28 September 2007, he was appointed by

German Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

outfit Energie Cottbus, who had parted company with head coach

Petrik Sander Petrik Sander (born 17 November 1960 in Quedlinburg) is a German former footballer and currently the manager of FSV Budissa Bautzen. Player career He played over 150 games in the DDR-Oberliga for FC Energie Cottbus and Motor Nordhausen. Coac ...

five days earlier. Prašnikar, who was in charge of Primorje Ajdovščina in the Slovenian league before that, signed a deal until June 2010 with the former German Cup finalist. On 30 May 2009 Prašnikar announced his leaving at the end of the season from

FC Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons in ...

, his last game was the

2008–09 Bundesliga The 2008–09 Bundesliga was the 46th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season began on 15 August 2008 with a 2–2 draw between defending champions Bayern Munich and Hamburger SV and ended with the last matches ...

relegation playoff game on 31 May 2009 against

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bund ...

which he lost 5–0 on

aggregate Aggregate or aggregates may refer to: Computing and mathematics * collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...

. On 6 April 2010, Prašnikar signed a contract until the end of the season with the Slovenian team

NK Rudar Velenje Nogometni klub Rudar Velenje ( en, Rudar Velenje Football Club), commonly referred to as NK Rudar Velenje or simply Rudar Velenje, is a Slovenian football club from Velenje which competes in the Slovenian Second League. History The club was fo ...

.Prašnikar prevzel vodenje članske ekipe NK Rudar

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prasnikar, Bojan 1953 births Living people People from the Municipality of Šmartno ob Paki Men's association football forwards Yugoslav footballers Slovenian footballers NK Šmartno ob Paki players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) players SVG Bleiburg players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Austria Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Austria Yugoslav football managers Slovenian football managers NK Celje managers NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) managers NK Rudar Velenje managers NK Maribor managers Slovenia national football team managers AEL Limassol managers NK Primorje managers FC Energie Cottbus managers NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) managers Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Expatriate football managers in Germany 2. Bundesliga managers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Slovenian expatriate football managers