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 Goran Kovačić primary school, where he was initially active as a handball goalkeeper. He was spotted there by Josip Kezdi, at that point an ex-goalkeeper for NK Borovo, who suggested he try football. He took his advice and soon became a goalkeeper in NK Borovo, before earning a move to NK Osijek. On 29 November 1962, NK Osijek juniors took part in the Yugoslav Republic Day tournament in Belgrade where 16-year-old Dujković impressed so much that powerhouse Red Star Belgrade immediately offered a move to their youth system. He accepted right away and only went home to pick up personal belongings.

At Red Star he became part of a new batch of up-and-coming players along with Jovan Aćimović, Stanislav Karasi, Dragan Džajić, Trifke Mihajlović under coach Miljan Miljanić. Dujković made his first team debut on 4 June 1964 in a last week tie of the 1963/64 season versus OFK Beograd. While at Red Star he played in the 1971 European Champions Cup semi-final and earned four appearances in Yugoslavia national football team. In 1974, Dujković moved to Real Oviedo, spending three seasons with the Spanish outfit. He returned to Yugoslav First League in 1977, joining newly promoted NK Osijek and staying with the club for three seasons. Following the conclusion to 1979/80 campaign, at the end of which NK Osijek got relegated, Dujković made the switch to Galenika Zemun, another second league side, and helped it gain promotion in 1981/82 season. He would not play top flight football again, though, as he promptly retired in the summer of 1982.

Managing career

Dujković's foray into coaching started with the same club he ended his playing days in: Galenika. He was part of their coaching staff during 1982/83 season, which the team finished dead last and got relegated again.

Galenika

Dujković's first head coaching job came in 1983 at Galenika. He led the team to some respectable results in Yugoslav Second League for a couple of seasons, but never gained promotion. In 1987, he accepted an offer from Red Star Belgrade to become the goalkeepers' coach on their staff. For the next 5 years Dujković worked under various head coaches, with the exception of one season that he spent assisting Gojko Zec in United Arab Emirates. Dujković was on the Red Star coaching staff when the team won the European Cup in 1991.

Venezuela

Dujković would wait until 1992 for his next head coaching job. He was recommended to the Venezuelan Football Federation by Vladica Popović and Dušan Marović both of whom had playing stints in the country. That, coupled with his knowledge of Spanish made Dujković the head coach of Venezuela national football team where he spent three years. Taking over the team of modest expectations, his biggest claims to success might be that under his guidance Venezuela avoided last place in Copa América for the first time in a very long period or that they jumped 29 places on the FIFA list.

Myanmar and a return to Venezuela

Next came the head coaching role at Myanmar's national football team. Dujković qualified them for Asian Games, but eventually quit due to Myanmar's turbulent relationship with FIFA. He returned to Venezuela to recently established Atlético Zulia club side from Maracaibo and got the coach of the year honours.

Afterwards, Dujković coached Universidad de Los Andes from Mérida and later their cross-town rivals Estudiantes. In 2000, he was included on the FR Yugoslavia's coaching staff for Euro 2000 under head coach Vujadin Boškov.

Rwanda

Dujković became the coach of the Rwandan football team in late 2001. Rwandan Football Federation sought assistance in their search for a coach from Serbia-Montenegro FA, which in turn recommended Dujković. Emerging from the horrors of genocide, football provided a welcome distraction for the people of Rwanda. The team won 7 of its first 18 matches under Dujković's guidance. He soon gained international acclaim when he led Rwanda into the African Cup of Nations for the first time. Ironically, Rwanda qualified at the expense of Ghana – a nation whose national team he would soon take over and lead to 2006 World Cup – in a memorable qualifier in Kigali on 6 July 2003.

At the final tournament in Tunisia in January 2004, Rwanda, among the smallest ever to qualify, came within minutes of progressing from the group and entering quarterfinals. Dujković's contract with Rwanda expired in mid-2004 and he left after failing to agree to a new contract with the Rwandan FA.

Ghana

In September 2004, the Portuguese-born Mariano Barreto quit the Ghana national football team to manage CS Marítimo in his native country. A long 3-month search for his replacement followed and it included various candidates (Philippe Troussier

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases