Marijan Pušnik (born 1 November 1960) 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.

Managerial career

Pušnik started his managerial career with

Dravograd Dravograd (; german: Unterdrauburg) is a small town in northern Slovenia, close to the border with Austria. It is the seat of the Municipality of Dravograd. It lies on the Drava River at the confluence with the Meža and the Mislinja. It is ...

in 1994 but landed his first serious job as

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

manager in 2000. During his four years at Celje, his biggest success was in the 2002–03 season when his team finished second in the 2002–03 Slovenian PrvaLiga and runners-up of the

2002–03 Slovenian Football Cup The 2002–03 Slovenian Football Cup was the twelfth season of the Slovenian Football Cup, Slovenia's football knockout competition. Qualified clubs 2001–02 Slovenian PrvaLiga members * Celje *Domžale * Gorica * Koper * Korotan Prevalje * M ...

. After a few years in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, he returned to Slovenia and took over

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 ...

in 2006 with whom he eliminated

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

in the

2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the first edition after a major change of the competition format. There were only three rounds instead of five, and eleven tournament co-winners qualified for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup (instead of ...

. In 2007, after the arrival of

Zlatko Zahovič Zlatko Zahovič (; born 1 February 1971) is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. After making a name for himself in Europe in Portugal, most notably with Porto and Benfica where he amassed Primeira L ...

to the club, Pušnik was sacked. After a few years of working at Rudar Velenje where he managed to finish third in the league, he went back to Iran. In June 2015, Pušnik became the manager of Olimpija Ljubljana. After Olimpija finished the first part of the season as the leading team in the league, Pušnik fell into an argument with sporting director Ranko Stojić and was sacked in December 2015. Olimpija went on to win the title that year. On 2 June 2016, Pušnik was announced as the new manager of

Hajduk Split Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split () or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, t ...

and thus, he became the first Slovenian manager of Hajduk Split in history. He was sacked from Hajduk on 1 December 2016 after dropping out of the 2016–17 Croatian Football Cup quarter-finals. On 9 March 2017, Pušnik returned to Olimpija Ljubljana, replacing

Luka Elsner Luka Elsner (born 2 August 1982) is a Slovenian professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of French Ligue 2 team Le Havre. Club career Growing up in France, Elsner began his career at OGC Nice, where he was part of the ...

. He was sacked less than one month later, on 3 April 2017. On 12 June 2017, Pušnik was announced as the new manager of Rudar Velenje.

References

External links

* Living people 1960 births Sportspeople from Slovenj Gradec Slovenian football managers Damash Gilan managers NK Celje managers NK Maribor managers Expatriate football managers in Iran Expatriate football managers in Japan J2 League managers Avispa Fukuoka managers NK Rudar Velenje managers NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) managers Slovenian expatriates in Austria Expatriate football managers in Austria Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Expatriate football managers in Croatia HNK Hajduk Split managers Slovenian expatriate football managers Croatian Football League managers {{Slovenia-footy-bio-stub