Ljubomir Crnokrak (; born 19 March 1958) is a

Croatian Serb The Serbs of Croatia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Срби у Хрватској, Srbi u Hrvatskoj) or Croatian Serbs ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", хрватски Срби, hrvatski Srbi) constitute the largest national minority in Croa ...

professional football manager. He was also a fashion model and instructor.Treneri i manekeni
at novosti.rs, 27-8-2008, retrieved 29-6-2019

Career

Born in Pristeg, a village in the outskirts of Benkovac, back then part of SR Croatia, he started playing football at a very early age. Most of his friends and neighbors were supporters of

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

. Recognising his talent, DIF professor Veljko Aleksić sent Crnokrak to the capital to join

for training. There he was taught by authorities in the field such as

Ćiro Blažević Ćiro is a predominantly Croatian and occasionally Serbian name. It is within the 2,000 most common first names in Croatia. The name is more common in southern Croatia. Its first known mention was in a 1749 tax census. Notable people * Ćiro Tr ...

, Branko Stanković, Dragoslav Šekularac, Vlada Popović,

Ratomir Dujković Ratomir Dujković (Serbian Cyrillic: Ратомир Дујковић, born 24 February 1946) is a Serbian football manager and a former player. Playing career Born and raised in Borovo Naselje to an ethnic Serb family, Dujković attended Ivan ...

, and

Dragan Džajić Dragan Džajić ( sr-Cyrl, Драган Џајић; born 30 May 1946) is a Yugoslav former footballer from Serbia. Džajić is widely considered to be one of the best footballers to emerge from the former Yugoslavia, and one of the greatest lef ...

. This provided him the ability to attend and participate in UEFA seminars. However, by that time he was dedicating himself to professional modeling, which provided him with a good income. He also taught younger models. During this time he decided to sacrifice his football career for modeling, but he later returned to football. He returned to football by coaching lower-level clubs such as GSP Polet and Palilulac Beograd and the women's club Sloga Zemun, which he began in 1991. In 1992, he founded his own football academy. In 1995, he returned to his coaching career with Sloga Petrovac, Srem Jakovo and Šumadija Aranđelovac in succession. Wishing to take on new challenges, in 2004 he moved to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

and from 2005 until 2007 he coached the Dominican Republic national football team.Digicel team profiles - Bermuda Sun
/ref> When he started, the team was ranked 193 in FIFA rankings, and by time he left it had risen to 135. He put the team among the top eight

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

teams, but a lack of financial resources stopped the project and Crnokrak left.

References

1958 births Living people People from Benkovac Serbs of Croatia Yugoslav football managers Serbian football managers Expatriate football managers in the Dominican Republic Dominican Republic national football team managers Serbian male models {{Serbia-footy-bio-stub