Zoran Đorđević (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...

: Зоран Ђорђевић; born 13 February 1952) is a

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n international

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. During his 40-year career, he has coached many national and first-league teams across Asia and Africa. Đorđević was the subject of the 2013 documentary ''Coach Zoran and His African Tigers'', describing his attempts to give a head start to the recently formed

South Sudan national football team The South Sudan national football team represents South Sudan in international football and is controlled by the South Sudan Football Association, the governing body for football in South Sudan. History Zoran Đorđević was appointed on 25 Ma ...

Profile

Đorđević was the head coach of

Bangladesh national football team The Bangladesh national football team ( bn, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয় ফুটবল দল) is the national recognised football team of Bangladesh and is controlled by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF). It is a membe ...

with whom he became champion at the

2010 South Asian Games The 2010 South Asian Games, officially the XI South Asian Games, was a major multi-sport event that took place from 29 January to 8 February 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This was the third time that the Bangladeshi capital hosted the South Asian ...

. He led Bangladesh to their first gold medal in 11 years at this competition, creating history by setting two new records: 4–0 victory vs. Afghanistan is the biggest winning margin in the final in the 26 year history of this competition and becoming champion without a single goal conceded in the tournament. Before this he was the head coach of

Churchill Brothers SC Churchill Brothers FC Goa, or simply known as Churchill Brothers, is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the I-League, alongside Goa Professional League. Founded in 1988 in Margao, the club usually parti ...

in the Indian Professional League, the

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

. Đorđević was the first foreign coach to become champion of India when Churchill Brothers won the 2008–09 I-League, their first national league title in club history, after finishing as runners-up on four previous occasions. He is also the first foreigner to receive the prestigious S. A. Rahim Trophy for the best coach of the year from the

All India Football Federation The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation. It is affiliated to Ministry o ...

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and President

Sepp Blatter Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of ...

sent a congratulatory letter to Đorđević for this achievement. Additionally he led the club to become state champions of Goa and reached qualification for the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

for the first time.

National team coaching career

*Head Coach of

– 1st place, Gold Medal (5 matches played, 5 wins, 0 draws, 0 losses, 13 goals scored, 0 goals conceded, no red card)
Group Matches: Bangladesh 3–0 Nepal, Bangladesh 4–0 Bhutan, Bangladesh 1:0 Maldives, Semifinal: Bangladesh 1–0 India, Final: Bangladesh 4–0 Afghanistan
New record 4–0 victory in final of the competition – first gold medal for Bangladesh after 11 years
First time team becoming champion without a single goal conceded in tournament 26-year history *Head Coach of

Sudan national football team The Sudan national football team ( ar, منتخب السودان الوطني لكرة القدم) represents Sudan in international football and is controlled by the Sudan Football Association, the governing body for football in Sudan. Its hom ...

for

2002 FIFA World Cup 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 ...

Korea/Japan – Qualifiers Preliminary Playoff: (H) Sudan 1–0 Mozambique, (A) Mozambique 2–1 Sudan (2–2 Sudan qualified on away goals rule for Group B with Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone) *Head Coach of

Yemen national football team The Yemen national football team ( ar, منتخب اليمن الوطني لكرة القدم), is the national team of Yemen and is controlled by the Yemen Football Association. When the nation was split into North Yemen and South Yemen bef ...

for

2000 AFC Asian Cup The 2000 AFC Asian Cup was the 12th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Lebanon between 12 and 29 O ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

– Qualifiers (Best results: Yemen 3–0 Nepal, Yemen 11–2 Bhutan) Đorđević was appointed head coach of the Philippines U-21's in January 2012.

Club coaching career

On 9 June 2007 Đorđević signed a contract with

IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

club F.C. Zob Ahan for the 2007–08 season following the departure of Rasoul Korbekandi who resigned due to health issues. He was sacked in October 2007 following unsatisfactory results in the 2007–08 Iran Pro League season. Coach Đorđević removed from the starting lineup some experienced players who did not fit into his concept and promoted from the youth team a 17-year-old goalkeeper

Mohammad Bagher Sadeghi Mohammadbagher Sadeghi ( fa, محمدباقر صادقی, born 1 April 1989) is an Iranian football goalkeeper. Club career He was a product of Zob Ahan youth system. He joined the first team in 2007–08 season. After spending five season wit ...

and 16-year-old Mohsen Mosalman who became the youngest player ever to score a goal against

Persepolis F.C. Persepolis Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال پرسپولیس, Bâšgâh-e Futbâl-e Perspolis) is an Iranian professional football club based in Tehran, that competes in the Persian Gulf Pro League. Persepolis was founded in 1 ...

– the most successful and biggest club in Iran. His disagreements with the club management over player selection led to his departure from the club, claiming he wanted to build a champion team at a club which never finished higher than 5th position in the Iranian League. After coach Đorđević's departure, in the very next season Zob Ahan club won the national cup which was their second trophy in club history and narrowly lost the league on the final match of the season, finishing 2nd on goal difference. Many in Esfahan today praise ZĐorđević for his farsighted vision and his contribution of launching the careers of talented young players who reached the Iran national team. Tomislav Savic, the former goalkeeper coach of Atletico Madrid who was brought to the club by head coach Đorđević, received the best goalkeeper coach award in Iran in 2008–09 and still remains with the club into his fourth season. On 5 February 2007 Đorđević was appointed head-coach of

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

2nd Division side ''Al-Rams''. In the first disastrous half of the 2006–07 season, the club was at the bottom of the standings with only one point and had not registered a single win (15 matches, 0 wins, 1 draw, 14 losses) which led to the dismissal of their Egyptian coach. After coach Zoran's arrival in mid-season, against all the odds he managed to revitalize the team (5 wins, 2 draws, 8 losses, 17 points). He created a sensational result when with the bottom club Al-Rams won 4–3 against the league leaders

Ajman Club Ajman Club (Arabic: نادي عجمان‎) is an Emirati football club based in Ajman. In 2015, Ajman was relegated to the second division, but managed to climb back to the top flight in 2017. Honours The club has gained the following honours: ...

who were until then favourites for promotion to UAE Premier League. 2008–09

* First Foreign Coach India League Champion * First Foreigner to receive the Best Coach of the year award in India * Received a congratulation letter from FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter for this unique achievement * Qualification for

– First National League Title in Club history * Goa Vodafone Pro-League Champion * India Federation Cup semifinal, Super Cup final *

9–1 victory over

Vasco SC Vasco may refer to: * Basque language, called ''vasco'' in Spanish * ''Vasco'' (album), a two-part EP by Ricardo Villalobos * Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer * Vasco da Gama, Goa, a city in India, often called simply Vasco * Club de Regatas Va ...

is the record biggest winning margin in

history

Coach Zoran and His African Tigers

During 2012, Đorđević was the subject of a documentary by British filmmaker Sam Benstead. The documentary looked at Đorđević's time as South Sudan national football team in which he led South Sudan to a 2-2 draw with Uganda in their inaugural FIFA recognised international friendly and their campaign in the

2012 CECAFA Cup The 2012 CECAFA Cup (known as the CECAFA Tusker Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 36th edition of the annual CECAFA Cup, an international football competition consisting of national teams of member nations of the Council for East and ...

References

External links

FIFA.com – Bengal Tigers roar againthe-AFC.com – Bangladesh are South Asian Games Championsthe-AFC.com – Afghanistan, Bangladesh in summit clashthe-AFC.com – SAF Games: Bangladesh, Maldives in last fourBFFonline – Djordjevic new Bangladesh coach
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120224040319/http://www.sportal.rs/news.php?id=1595 Sportal.rs – Srbin osvojio titulu u Indiji!br>KURIR – Srbin osvojio Indiju GLAS – Zoran Đorđević prvi zvaničan kandidat za selektora Srbije!MONDO – Djordjević se kandidovao za selektora Srbije

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