Josip Višnjić ( Cyrillic: Jocип Bишњић; born 17 November 1966) is a Serbian retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

, and a coach. His first name has also been spelled as Josif. After starting out at Radnički Niš, he went on to spend the vast majority of his career in Spain, as both a player and manager. In

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

, he represented

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Li ...

and Hércules.

Playing career

In his country, Belgrade-born Višnjić played for

FK Radnički Niš Fudbalski klub Radnički (), commonly known as Radnički Niš ( sr-cyr, Раднички Ниш), is a professional football club based in ok Niš, Serbia. Its name means ''Labourers'' in Serbian and stems from the relationship with the Labour ...

and

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

. At nearly 25 he moved abroad, going on to spend the remaining years of his career in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, with three clubs: he started out with CP Mérida in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, then achieved both one

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

from

with

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. In 1995, Višnjić signed with Hércules CF in

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

, playing 30 matches in his first season which ended in top flight promotion, followed by immediate relegation. After the club's demotion into the

third level Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, the 32-year-old retired one year later, having appeared in 88 games in the Spanish top division (238 with both major levels accounted for).

Coaching career

Višnjić started coaching one year after retiring, starting with the reserves of his last club (he also briefly managed the first team) and working mainly in Spain, never in higher than division three. In the 2004–05 campaign, he worked with former Hércules teammate Manolo Alfaro at

RSD Alcalá Real Sociedad Deportiva Alcalá is a Spanish football team based in Alcalá de Henares in the Community of Madrid. Founded in 1929 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 7, holding home matches at ''Estadio Municipal del Val'', with a capac ...

. Višnjić returned to manage Hércules in 2018.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Visnjic, Josip 1966 births Living people Serbian people of Croatian descent Footballers from Belgrade Serbian men's footballers Yugoslav men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Yugoslav First League players FK Radnički Niš players FK Partizan players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CP Mérida footballers Rayo Vallecano players Hércules CF players Serbian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Serbian football managers Segunda División B managers Hércules CF managers RSD Alcalá managers UD Las Palmas managers Granada CF managers UD Logroñés managers CF Fuenlabrada managers CD Toledo managers Serbian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Spain