Ante Šimundža (born 28 September 1971) is a Slovenian professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

and former

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Club career

Šimundža started his career at hometown club Železničar Maribor at the age of ten, and moved to NK Maribor after Slovenia's independence in 1991. He stayed there for six seasons, scoring 64 league goals in 170 appearances. He played for a number of different foreign clubs between 1997 and 1998, however, plagued by constant ankle injuries he soon returned to Maribor. There he was an important part of Maribor's qualification to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

during the 1999–2000 season. He was the scorer of the winning goal in the first round of the group stage when Maribor defeated

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

1–0, which is to date the only victory of any Slovenian club in this phase of the competition. In 2001, he again moved abroad and played for La Louvière, before returning to his native country and finishing his professional career with Aluminij and

Šmartno ob Paki Šmartno ob Paki () is a settlement in the lower Paka (river), Paka Valley in northern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Šmartno ob Paki. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Styria, Styria. It is now included in the ...

. Šimundža has made a total of 256

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga ( sl, Prva slovenska nogometna liga, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten club ...

appearances, scoring 87 goals in the process. Considered a Maribor club legend, he is tied with Gregor Židan as a player with the most appearances for the club during the 1990s.

International career

Šimundža has been capped three times for the

Slovenia national football team The Slovenia national football team ( sl, Slovenska nogometna reprezentanca) represents Slovenia in men's international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Slovenia, the governing body for football in Slovenia. The squad ...

between 1993 and 1999.

Managerial career

Šimundža began his coaching career at his hometown club Železničar Maribor, where he was coaching youth selections. He started his senior coaching career in 2007, when he was appointed as an assistant coach of Pavel Pinni at Celje. In 2008, he became an assistant of Darko Milanič at Maribor. He was part of Maribor's sports department until 2011 when he was selected as a head coach of Mura 05. His season with Mura 05 was impressive and he turned the team around, changing it from a relegation contender to the eventual

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competitions qualifier, as the club finished third during the

2011–12 Slovenian PrvaLiga The 2011–12 Slovenian PrvaLiga was the 21st season of the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the top-tier football league in Slovenia. The season began on 16 July 2011 and ended on 26 May 2012, with a winter break in effect between 4 December 2011 and 2 March ...

season. By the end of his first season as head coach, he was nominated for the best coach in the league. He then accepted an offer from Austrian side GAK, signing with the club in June 2012. However, the club went bankrupt a few months later and Šimundža returned to Mura 05 in early 2013. After the 2012–13 season, Mura 05 also went bankrupt, and Šimundža took over the

Slovenian Second League The Slovenian Second Football League ( sl, Druga slovenska nogometna liga or commonly 2. SNL) is the second highest football league in Slovenia. The league was formed in 1991 and is operated by the Football Association of Slovenia. Format and rul ...

side Aluminij in June 2013. In September 2013, Šimundža has been appointed as the new manager of Slovenian champions Maribor. With Maribor, he won two national titles (2013–14 and 2014–15), and also qualified for the group stages of the

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

. He resigned in August 2015 after losing 3–0 at home against Maribor's biggest rivals, Olimpija Ljubljana. In June 2017, Šimundža once again took charge at Mura. With the club, he won the 2019–20 edition of the

Slovenian Football Cup The Slovenian Football Cup ( sl, Pokal Nogometne zveze Slovenije, ) is the top knockout tournament of Slovenian football and the second most important football competition in Slovenia after the Slovenian PrvaLiga championship. The cup was establi ...

, clinching their first major trophy in 25 years. The following year, Mura became the Slovenian champion for the first time after winning the

2020–21 Slovenian PrvaLiga The 2020–21 Slovenian PrvaLiga was the 30th edition of the Slovenian PrvaLiga since its establishment in 1991. The season began on 22 August 2020 and ended on 22 May 2021. Celje were the defending champions, having won their first title in the ...

season. In the last round of the season, Šimundža defeated his former club Maribor to win the title. After four years at the club, he left by mutual consent in December 2021. On 3 January 2022, Šimundža joined

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

club Ludogorets Razgrad as their new head coach. He led the team to its eleventh consecutive league title in the 2021–22 season, before being sacked on 7 March 2023 following a 1–0 home defeat against

Pirin Blagoevgrad Futbolen klub Pirin ( bg, Футболен клуб „Пирин“), also known as Pirin Blagoevgrad is a Bulgarian football club based in Blagoevgrad, which currently competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. Th ...

Personal life

Šimundža was born in Maribor, present day Slovenia, as the youngest of two children, with his sister being six years older than him. His father was a Croat from

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

and his mother a Slovene from

Kidričevo Kidričevo () is a town near Ptuj in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Kidričevo. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The municipality is now included in the Drava Statistical Region. The town is i ...

. He is married and has two sons, Luka and Jure, who were named after their grandfathers.

Honours

Manager

Maribor *

Slovenian First League The Slovenian PrvaLiga ( sl, Prva slovenska nogometna liga, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten club ...

: 2013–14, 2014–15 *

Slovenian Supercup The Slovenian Supercup ( sl, Superpokal Slovenije) was a Association football, football match played between the Slovenian PrvaLiga champions and the Slovenian Football Cup, Slovenian Cup winners. Prior 2007, the match was held only twice, in 1995 ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Mura *Slovenian First League:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

: 2017–18 *

Slovenian Cup Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

: 2019–20 Ludogorets Razgrad *

: 2021–22 *

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup ( bg, Суперкупа на България) is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match an ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

References

External links